OMV starts up ground-mounted photovoltaic plant with solar tracking in Lobau

• Savings of around 2,100 tons of CO2 per year
• Power produced will meet around 45% of the annual electrical energy demand of the OMV tank farm in Lobau, equivalent to annual electricity consumption of 1,800 households

OMV, the international, integrated oil, gas and chemicals company headquartered in Vienna, has started up its ground-mounted photovoltaic plant with solar tracking in Lobau (Austria/Vienna). OMV has invested around EUR 4.5 mn in the facility. 

On an industrial plot owned by OMV measuring 6 hectares a ground-mounted photovoltaic plant with solar tracking and output of 5,590 kWp has been installed in Lobau. Compared to a fixed installation, a solar-tracking system, i.e. one that follows the position of the sun, increases sustainable electricity production by about 10%. In addition, the solar panels are equipped with bifacial modules. These are “two-sided” cells that can use the reflected light also via the backside of the panel. This increases production efficiency by another 5% compared to single-face solar cells. A total of nearly 10,000 photovoltaic modules and more than 50 inverters were installed. The renewable electricity is fed directly into the OMV grid and covers with 7 GWh around 45% of the annual energy demand of the OMV Lobau tank farm. This is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 1,800 households and ensures CO2 savings of around 2,100 tons per year.

“With this solar-tracked photovoltaic plant, we are able to sustainably cover another part of our energy consumption with solar energy and reduce our CO2 intensity. My thanks go to our project team for the rapid and impeccable realization of this environmental project”, said Martijn van Koten, OMV Executive Board Member for Refining.

Background information:

OMV Aktiengesellschaft
OMV produces and markets oil and gas, as well as chemical products and solutions in a responsible way and develops innovative solutions for a circular economy. With Group sales revenues of EUR 36 bn and a workforce of around 22,400 employees in 2021, OMV is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies. In Exploration & Production, OMV has a strong base in Central and Eastern Europe as well as a balanced international portfolio, with Middle East & Africa, the North Sea, Russia and Asia-Pacific as core regions. Daily average production was 486,000 boe/d in 2021 with an emphasis on natural gas. In Refining & Marketing, OMV operates three refineries in Europe and owns a 15% share in ADNOC Refining and ADNOC Global Trading, with a total processing capacity of around 500,000 bbl/d. Furthermore, OMV operates about 2,100 filling stations in ten European countries and runs gas storage facilities in Austria and Germany. In 2021, total natural gas sales volumes amounted to 196 TWh. In Chemicals & Materials, OMV, through its subsidiary Borealis, is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals, fertilizers and the mechanical recycling of plastics. The company supplies services and products to customers around the globe through Borealis and its two important joint ventures: Borouge (with ADNOC, based in UAE and Singapore) and Baystar™ (with TotalEnergies, based in the US). Sustainability is an integral part of OMV’s corporate strategy. OMV supports the transition to a lower-carbon economy and has set measurable targets for reducing carbon intensity as well as for the implementation of new energy and petrochemical solutions.