Solar and wind farms offer landowners long-term, stable and attractive lease income. The power plants generate energy locally and help protect the climate and environment.
GP JOULE has been developing, constructing and operating wind and solar farms for more than 13 years. We are the right long-term partner for you.
Solar and wind power have long since become an important economic pillar for farmers and other landowners. With their high efficiency, solar farms and wind turbines offer stable lease income – even on land that would otherwise generate low returns.
Ireland and the rest of Europe have a common goal: climate neutrality. This is why the transformation of the energy system is being promoted. Capitalise on this opportunity and harvest the power of the sun and wind!
Solar and wind power are the central building blocks in the transformation of our energy supply – in Ireland and throughout Europe. Energy from renewable sources will reduce carbon emissions, meet climate targets and ensure a liveable future for generations to come.
In addition, wind and solar farms are already creating added value in local economies. Together with landowners and all its partners, GP JOULE drives the change that so many people in Ireland are hoping for. We want to pursue a path to net zero that involves as many people as possible. Let’s act together!
We understand your concerns as a landowner.
Thus we assess and evaluate potential locations: What are the overall climatic, technical and political conditions like?
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.
Generating green hydrogen fuel from wind power - that won’t work. Yes it does! This is clearly proved by the largest sustainable hydrogen mobility project to date, eFarm. In the district of North Frisia, Schleswig-Holstein, the joint project initiated by GP JOULE is implementing a hydrogen infrastructure from generation to processing and fleet use in electric vehicles using renewable energies only. The aim is to introduce a sustainable, collective system to society at large based on renewable energy. Producing, transporting, processing and marketing green hydrogen in a joint project is an ambitious undertaking that requires in-depth business and technical know-how and also the power of persuasion.
The eFarm project provides supply security in North Frisia for 100 % green, regionally produced hydrogen from wind power, thus paving the way for all citizens and companies who want to purchase a hydrogen vehicle. To meet the expected mobility needs, the project includes:
Enabling citizens to experience renewable energies and participate in regional value creation creates the necessary acceptance of the project. In view of this, project supervision includes systematic acceptance management in addition to direct citizen participation: in this way, a dialogue process is initiated in which acceptance is systematically monitored in the region, indicating influence variables.
Where in autumn 2019 a large crater still bore witness to years of work carried out by heavy-duty excavators, there is now a solar park consisting of some 165,000 modules that generates 65 megawatts of power and is able to supply around 16,500 households with CO2-free electricity. On the 71-hectare site of a former gravel pit, GP JOULE created Germany's largest solar project since 2013 on behalf of Clenergy Global Projects Hamburg in record time. Construction of the impressive solar park in Ganzlin in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim was completed in a period of just eight months –
accomplished by GP JOULE as a general contractor with extensive practical experience of projects on this scale. Under an EPC contract (Engineering – Procurement – Construction), GP JOULE was responsible for the entire planning process – from the selection and procurement of components and the awarding of service provider contracts through to the entire construction.
“It was not the price that clinched it for us”, says Daniel Ruoss, Vice President of the Clenergy Group and Managing Director of Clenergy Global Projects Germany, on the decision to join forces with GP JOULE for this megawatt project. “We were impressed not just by the company’s experience but also by its high level of expertise. GP JOULE always adopts a solution-oriented approach and has consistently provided us with constructive and purposeful support in our various shifts in direction.” The careful selection of subcontractors was also a key factor. “The GP JOULE team really faced up to the challenge.”
For Meik Georg Gessner, Head of Plant Construction – EPC at GP JOULE, this was nothing new: “It’s all possible based on sound coordination between the various subcontractors,” says Gessner. “We chose regional partners wherever we could, but of course our past experience of the quality produced by those subcontractors we commissioned was also a deciding factor.” The project team certainly achieved impressive results, and Gessner is extremely satisfied with the finished plant: “The Ganzlin solar park makes full use of the space available,” he says.
EPC Plant Construction and Operational Management: GP JOULE builds and operates Windpark Schimmendorf
Seven turbines and 16.8 MW of installed capacity: Windpark Schimmendorf in the Upper Franconian district of Kulmbach is the largest wind farm built by GP JOULE in Bavaria.
In addition to the entire project planning, GP JOULE also took over construction management of the wind park in Schimmendorf as the general contractor under an EPC contract (Engineering – Procurement – Construction). The company provided all the necessary services here – in particular the entire range of engineering work, the procurement of all necessary building materials and components, installation on site and turnkey commissioning in February 2017.
Since then we have also been responsible for technical management: the seven installed turbines are controlled via two modern control rooms that can be accessed on a round-the-clock basis. GP JOULE tracks maintenance cycles and monitors the work on site. To complete the range of services, the company provides detailed reporting on the performance and profitability of the plant as well as online access to the customer portal for wind turbines.
Turbines made by the Rostock-based company Nordex are used at Windpark Schimmendorf.
"We’re particularly pleased with this project. It’s a key project for our business in southern Germany – and it very much reflects on our expertise to be entrusted with the entire construction and operation of such a plant: we really were able to contribute all our technical know-how here.”
Ove Petersen, Managing Director and founder of GP JOULE
The power plants form the basis. The electricity that you generate from renewable sources like the wind and sun can be fed into the grid, marketed directly to buyers or used to produce green hydrogen.
The demand for green hydrogen will increase significantly because it is the connecting element of the energy transition: Hydrogen is seeing increasing use everywhere – whether it is in the industry, as a fuel or for heating purposes.
The electric car market is growing rapidly and so is the demand for renewable electricity for mobility. GP JOULE combines power generated from renewable energy sources with sustainable energy use in a broad variety of e-mobility applications. We consult, build charging infrastructure and even develop entire regional car-sharing systems.
GP JOULE IRELAND Limited
Phone: +353 (0)156 440 26
Email: ireland(at)gp-joule.de
GP JOULE IRELAND Limited
Main Street, Dunboyne
A86HX63
Co. Meath
