Last December PAKRI Science and Industrial Park installed a solar farm, which became one of Estonian solar farms with the smallest environmental footprint due to several smart reusage solutions.
Enn Laansoo Jr., PAKRI CEO, said that the entire concept of the industrial park follows the environmentally friendly mindset. “For every project we search various solutions, how to implement our plans in the most resource saving way and so we put a reusable artificial turf under our solar farm”, he mentioned.
The solar farm as large as two soccer fields, with 1MW capacity is located on the former waste landfill, where from building and biological wastes were removed, that can be successfully reused. Solar farm is erected on concrete supports located on the used artificial turf.
The artificial turf was supplied to PAKRI by Advanced Sports Installations Europe AS, which in 2017 was awarded the title of the most environmentally friendly enterprise in Estonia. Roomer Tarajev, the company PR Manager, explained that the durability of the artificial turf improves when used on a soccer field. When the turf is ready it is used for 3-4 years on top soccer fields, where the requirements to the artificial turf are very high. Then it moves to the fields of a lower level, and later it can be also used as different applications in schools-kindergartens. Currently 90% of the artificial turf goes to landfills after the removal from a soccer field, however it still can be reused in different ways”, commented Tarajev, who is looking for new applications for the used artificial turf. According to him, the use of the artificial turf as a substructure for a solar farm is an ideal solution, as the area is large and larger pieces of the turf can be applied.
“As the solar farm is located on the property No.3 of our building complex and is also the first urban matrix of Paldiski, we wanted to arrange a correct ground for the solar farm, which in the framework of the project meant also a delivery of additional soil. The issue was settled by the artificial turf field as well as resulted in a small environmental footprint and low maintenance costs for the next 25 years”, stated PAKRI CEO and added: “Also fast response of the Advanced Sports Installationswas crucial under the critical construction schedule. They managed to deliver the first turf roll to the site only two days after our enquiry”.
Two companies with the green mindset met in Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol, where they reached a common understanding of creating a higher value together. Currently, when construction of solar farms is booming in Estonia, the use of artificial turf would offer them even more environmentally friendly image and PAKRI in these terms is a guiding benchmark.