A photovoltaic system having a plurality of photovoltaic modules producing electric energy and method for operating such photovoltaic system are disclosed. With the method, the photovoltaic modules are connected to a first DC motor having a motor shaft, and a generator shaft of a three-phase generator is coupled to the motor shaft. The three-phase generator can be connected to a power grid. The motor shaft of a second DC motor can be connected to the generator shaft, with only one of the two DC motors being initially driven with the electric energy produced by the photovoltaic modules. The electric energy is subsequently divided among both the first and the second DC motor. This process significantly shortens the startup process of the photovoltaic system compared to conventional systems.