DRIA GmbH founds company for photovoltaic systems

Dahlke Real Estate (DRIA), the Israeli investment firm LAHAV and the Marburg-based solar entrepreneur Volker Klös have founded a joint company. The business purpose of the Sloane Initiative Sonnenenergie is the construction and operation of PV systems on the roofs of retail store properties. The first project of the new company is to be realised on a Netto market with a fitness studio in Gummersbach (Auf der Brück 9). The electricity produced on the roof is to be sold to the tenants of the building.

According to Managing Director Alexander Dahlke, the production of electricity on the roofs of specialist stores is a natural choice. On the one hand, the roofs have enough space for PV systems, and on the other hand, the tenants of such properties, e.g. food markets with large cooling requirements, are constant electricity consumers. Until the start of the Ukraine war, however, tenants were often not interested in buying electricity produced on the roof by their landlord. “They bought electricity cheaply wholesale,” Dahlke reports. The operators of PV systems had to be satisfied with the Renewable Energies Act levy (EEG-Umlage) paid by the state. Now that electricity has become much more expensive, the specialist store tenants are much more interested in this offer.

The new PV company will initially equip the roofs of the specialist retail portfolio that DRIA and LAHAV own together. The partners have been jointly investing in real estate for everyday consumer goods (including food markets, non-food markets, DIY stores) for over 10 years and have now built up a portfolio of 90 retail properties. In a second step, the company also wants to offer third-party landlords to equip their roofs with PV systems.