RWE, German city commission 28.5-MW wind farm

Germany energy group RWE AG (ETR:RWE) and the city of Bedburg in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia state have brought online a 28.5-MW wind farm, expanding their partnership.

The EUR-30-million (USD 29.6m) project, called Bedburg A 44n, consists of five turbines located on recultivated land at the Garzweiler open-cast mine, RWE said on Tuesday. It expands the existing Koenigshovener Hoehe wind farm. The city of Bedburg owns a 49% stake and RWE 51% in both wind farms. Overall, the partners now operate 95 MW of wind capacity on the territory of the city.

According to the announcement, the Bedburg A 44n project is capable of producing electricity equivalent to the annual needs of 28,000 households, which exceeds the consumption of the city's citizens and businesses.

RWE also said that the project uses an innovative supply concept – four of its turbines are connected to the grid via the existing infrastructure of the open-cast mine, while the fifth will supply power to Bedburg-Kaster, a resource protection settlement currently under construction, using an energy storage system.

“North Rhine-Westphalia, and in particular the Rhenish mining area, is one of the focal points of our growth strategy, where we will invest 4 billion euro gross by the end of the decade,” Katja Wuenschel, CEO Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia of RWE Renewables, said, adding that the company relies on partnerships with municipalities.

(EUR 1 = USD 0.986)

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