MELT! Festival Ties Up With Q-Cells for a Solar Powered Future
Germany’s Green Music Initiative have been busy looking at renewable energies for the music and entertainment industries and now, together with Q-Cells, the Ferropolis site operators and the Melt! Festival in Germany they have launched Ferro Solar, a photovoltaic system on the roofs of buildings in the famous ‘City of Iron’ which has accumulated enough carbon-neutral solar power to power the Melt! Festival and to power the Splash Festival. The Green Music Initiative’s aim is to assist in an industry-wide energy transition process with the organizations in the festival and live music industry by developing innovative approaches to power generation and storage.Q-Cells solar have provided panels on the roofs of Ferropolis site, a previous centre for heavy industry, which in turn provides the MELT! Festival with clean solar electricity. Q-Cells, Ferropolis GmbH, MELT! GmbH and the Green Music Initiative are aiming to create green approaches for the music industry. Q-Cells AG is one of the world's leading photovoltaic providers and has installed a four-part solar system with a total capacity of 210 kilowatts peak (kWp) on the roofs of the ‘Iron City’ of Ferropolis. Ferropolis GmbH has also set up a new scheme with the Martin-Luther-University Halle / Wittenberg FERROLab to provide new educational opportunities for students interested in environmental sustainability and green power technology.Thomas Franks, head of marketing at Q-Cells said " This ground-breaking solar project is of great importance for the region of Central Germany” adding “The solar panels on the roofs of Ferropolis demonstrates our capabilities as a provider of solar solutions. With the co-operation of the MELT! Festival, and also with the partnership with the current German football champions Borussia Dortmund have brought solar power to a much wider audience.Thies Schroeder, managing director of Ferropolis GmbH said "The investment underpins the successful transformation of Ferropolis - the symbol of the lignite energy, solar ferro – and provides the festival site with new and renewable energy supply".A total of 2,000 Q. SMART thin film solar modules from Q-Cells will produce 189 000 kWh per year. That's two and a half more energy than a festival in the size of the MELT! consumed. Translated into CO2 emissions, this represents a saving of 166.77 thousand kilograms of CO2 per year and underscores the claim of Ferropolis operating company to make their site sustainable.The Green Music Initiative serves as a national platform to promote a climate-friendly music and entertainment industry. During MELT! (14th to 17thJuly) the Festival and the GMI hosted a special "Green MELT! Dinner" focusing is on the exchange of innovative ideas among representatives from music, science, media, politics, non-governmental organizations and industry with a goal to facilitate the involvement of all relevant social actors on a common path towards a climate friendly future as soon as practicable."We are especially proud of the cooperation between the Ferropolis GmbH and Q-Cells, which has installed in the framework of the solar panels on the roofs of Ferropolis," says Jacob Bilabel, founder of the Green Music Initiative. "The power produced here over the years from solar power can be calculated to power both the MELT! and the Splash! Festival. This shows that energy autonomy is possible "www.q-cells.de http://www.ferropolis.de http://www.greenmusicinitiative.de/