It all started with small solar plants: Heinrich Gärtner and Ove Petersen had already been putting PV projects into practice on their farms for a few years. In 2009, the two agricultural engineers decided to use their knowledge and experience to found a company - and to give it their initials: GP JOULE.
Their vision: To supply industry, transport and society with 100% renewable energies. Their stance: Respect all partners and take on responsibility for the environment and future generations.
And this is what made GP JOULE take off. Solar and biogas plants with a combined capacity of more than 100 MW were already installed in 2010. In 2011, Germany's largest solar park at the time was built with an output of 140 MW, of which GP JOULE installed 70 MW under its own management. And all this was done on the spoil heap of a former open-cast lignite mine. New green energy replaces old energy.
In 2012, GP JOULE enters the green hydrogen business, the first wind farm planned by GP JOULE is connected to the grid and the first GP JOULE solar parks are opened in Italy and France. And the projects keep coming: GP JOULE expands to Canada and the USA, later to Ireland and Italy, in order to plan, project and install solar parks there as well. The green revolution is everywhere.
And GP JOULE does not stop there: Cross-linking sectors remains the goal to be achieved to finally decarbonise all areas. To this end, a separate division, CONNECT, is founded to take charge of e-mobility and charging solutions, the revolutionary hydrogen project eFarm is driven forward (and was awarded the German Mobility Prize in 2022) and GP JOULE is currently once again involved in one of the largest solar parks in Germany: in Klettwitz in Lusatia, another place where lignite used to be mined. This time, however, it will be as much as 300 megawatts.
And so the GP JOULE Group just keeps growing - without forgetting its own roots. To this day, the two headquarters of the group are located on the farms of the two founders. And the first solar plants that Gärtner and Petersen planned are still supplying energy.
Energy that GP JOULE uses to turn an idea into a 100% sustainable reality - for the benefit of our partners, society and the environment.
