From the left: Gerald Kumerle (Gehrlicher Solar), Mike Zehner (FH-München), Moritz Czakalla (FH-München) and Bodo Giesler (Siemens)

Every year, at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Symposium in Bad Staffelstein, the symposium committee awards a prize for the best poster submitted. At this year's 26th annual symposium, which took place from March 2 to 4, Gehrlicher Solar AG won first place along with Siemens AG, The University of Munich and the Munich Public Utilities in the poster competition.

The topic of the poster was the solar park completed by Gehrlicher Solar in 2010 in Rothenburg/Oberlausitz, which has  a peak output of 20.5 MWp.   Eleven central inverters from Siemens are used to convert direct current to alternating current. Together with Siemens, the University of Munich and the Munich Public Utilities, Gehrlicher Solar carried out an analysis of the operating variables in the various subsystems of the large power plant.

The analysis provides insights into the optimum relationship between the generator's rated output and the inverters, and makes possible quantitative conclusions about the amount  and cause of yield losses due to design specifications. Altogether, it shows the solar park's great technical qualities. These findings were presented by the participating specialists as a poster in Bad Staffelstein. The poster convinced the committee in regards to the novelty of the topic and in terms of its technical, formal and material design, its optical presentation and the clear, structured and understandable views of the very complex issues.

Participating in the analysis and the poster competition were: Bodo Giesler (Siemens AG), Mike Zehner (FH-München [Munich University of Applied Sciences]), Moritz Czakalla (FH-München), Georg Wirth (FH-München), Gerd Becker (FH-München), Ken Maletz (FH-München), Martin Bothner (FH-München), Jakob von Gleichenstein (SWM), Thomas Vollweiter (Gehrlicher Solar AG), Thomas Bäuml (Gehrlicher Solar AG) and Gerald Kumerle (Gehrlicher Solar AG).

The symposium in Bad Staffelstein is held each year by the east Bavarian Technology Transfer Institute (OTTI), a non-profit institution, and is one of the most important technical conferences in Germany.