Meteorological equipment specialist Biral has been contracted to supply its BTD-200 Lightning Warning System to the largest solar farm in Poland. Biral will partner with Polish meteorological firm Comet to install the sensors at the 100ha site in Brudzew, central Poland.
The site has been built by solar specialist ESOLEO and consists of 155,554 photovoltaic modules – each with a capacity of 450Wp. Every year, the solar farm will produce 68,188MWh and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 56,000 tons.
As well as the photovoltaic modules, 306 inverters and more than 900km of cables and optical fibers were used in its construction. There are also 31 transformer stations on the site of the power plant, each with a capacity of 2MVA. Pallets from photovoltaic modules have been processed into plywood boards that will be used for the production of furniture.
Biral’s BTD-200 Lightning Warning System can detect the presence of all forms of lightning within 35km (22 miles). It is designed to be easily installed by non-specialist contractors and comes complete with a power supply for the detector and essential PC application – Lightning Works – for monitoring and warning of approaching thunderstorms.
Lightning Works operates alongside the BTD-200 software to send warning email and SMS text messages when thunderstorm activity is detected. Messages are sent both when thunderstorm activity is detected and when it clears.
Nathan Neal, sales and marketing director at Biral, said, “This is a huge project for Biral and clearly demonstrates the strength of our technology in what is often a difficult application to measure. We look forward to working closely with our friends at Comet and helping the solar farm benefit from greater reliability and accuracy in the years to come.”
Mariusz Klimczak, president of ESOLEO, added, “Green energy from Brudzewo flowed two days before the start of the COP 26 Climate Summit, known as the ‘last chance’ for an agreement to stop global warming. Such investments show that with the agreement of everyone – business, residents and local government – we can win this race for climate protection.”
