Since July 2011, the citizens of Recklinghausen decided to exploit solar potential with a community power project feeding the electricity from three PV systems into the power grid. The plant produces around 195,000 kWh of electricity per year. This amount of energy is enough to supply around 60 households with electricity the whole year. Initial investment costs of the project were 220,000-260,000 EUR. Citizens could participate in the project with the minimum investment of 500 EUR.