Lowering Energy Costs and Conserving Resources at DJK Weingarts Sports Club

After living abroad for a decade and a half, I moved back to Germany in 2015 and became heavily involved in Northern Bavaria’s local sports club, DJK Weingarts. The club was founded in 1961, and has more members than the town has inhabitants. How is that even possible? Well, one of my predecessors traveled a lot for his job and advertised for the club everywhere he went. We even have a few members in Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Berlin.

When I moved to Upper Franconia, I decided to retire early and got into photovoltaics, which has become a hobby of mine. When I had a solar power system installed on my house, I was able to get to know the largest provider in our area—and we were immediately on the same wavelength. I also attended many keynotes on photovoltaics.

In 2016, after learning about my interest in photovoltaics, DJK Weingarts’s Board of Directors asked me to help them figure out how to save money with solar. They said: “We are currently paying 600 euros a month in electricity costs. Do you have any idea how we can cut electricity costs?” My answer: “You need a PV system with battery storage, just like the one at my house.” After that, I calculated everything myself, negotiated prices and in 2017, we installed a 39.5 kWp solar panel system along with three Powerwall units. With an output of 35,000 kWh, we achieved a 70 percent self-sufficiency rate in the first few years.

When I presented these figures at the club’s annual meeting, the people in the area were all over me “I want one of those too!” So, I have since been involved in another 10 installations in the area simply because it’s my hobby. But above all, it has paid off for the sports club: coming from spending 600 euros per month on electricity, we are now generating a profit of up to 20 euros each month.

We not only use the solar energy we generate to power the sports facilities and the football pitch's floodlights—we also run a large restaurant, including an annex to the hall. The hall holds around 200 people, the restaurant serves 80 and an adjoining room holds another 40. This means we can cater events with over 300 guests.

The space is booked out almost every weekend for celebrations, anniversaries, birthdays, weddings and even political events. The kitchen is always busy and requires a lot of electricity to prepare 300 meals for a typical Franconian-style meal. When our industrial dishwasher is running or one of the ovens is on, you can see it right away on the Tesla app.

The floodlights at the sports facilities now require less power, as we converted the bulbs to LED. We are planning to use the electricity surplus for other things. For example, since 2021 we have been offering our guests free electric vehicle charging. The charging station does not use energy stored in Powerwalls, so they can only be used during the day when we have a solar energy surplus.

We will also be replacing our sports team’s old bus with an electric bus in the summer of 2022, so they’ll be able to use the energy generated by the sports club’s solar panels to to get to the matches.

We’ve also planned two extensions for the system including a combination of PV and Powerwall to be installed on the building above the garage, where the electric bus will be located. We also plan to decommission the old oil heating system, and once the new heat pumps are installed, we’ll need yet another solar extension.

Profitability is always a top priority for me. Afterall, we’re a pretty small association, so we can’t afford to take big leaps. The fact that switching to PV and Tesla Powerwall not only has financial benefits, but also saves resources is an amazing side effect.