It all began with small solar energy systems. Two agricultural engineers Ove Petersen and Heinrich Gärtner built successful solar projects on their farms in 2009. After that, they decided to apply their passion, knowledge, and experience to found GP JOULE.
Their vision: Supply industry, transport, and society with 100% renewable energy. Their approach: Show respect to all partners while demonstrating responsibility towards the environment and the coming generations.
This is the aspiration of GP JOULE. By the end of 2010, they had built solar and biogas plants with a combined output totalling more than 100 MW. 2011: GP JOULE builds Germany‘s then largest solar farm with a capacity of 140 MW. GP JOULE is single-handedly responsible for installing 70 MW of the total capacity. Constructed on the overburden of a former open-pit coal mine, it is an example of new green energy superseding old energy generation.
A year later GP JOULE enters the green hydrogen business; the first wind farm designed by GP JOULE is connected to the grid, and the first GP JOULE solar farms start generating in Italy and France. And the story goes on: GP JOULE is expanding into Canada and the US with the aim of planning, designing, and installing solar farms. The green revolution is everywhere.
And GP JOULE is not stopping there: The company’s goal remains to connect different sectors to eventually decarbonise all industries. The CONNECT division provides e-mobility and charging solutions and the revolutionary hydrogen project eFarm combines renewable hydrogen generation and clean public and private transport.
Shaping the structural change
In 2022 GP JOULE is once again involved in what is currently the largest solar farm in Germany – again on land where brown coal was once extracted. This time, however, the farm will have an output of an amazing 300 MW. The GP JOULE Group continued to grow – with currently more than 500 employees – without forgetting its roots. The Group‘s two headquarters are still located on the farms of the two founders.
And the first solar power systems planned by the two founders are still generating energy. Energy that we use to turn an idea into a 100 % sustainable reality – for the benefit of our partners, society and the environment.