The Vorarlberg energy supplier illwerke vkw has entered the wind energy sector.
In the German city of Völkersen (Lower Saxony), a wind farm with two wind turbines in the 5.6 megawatt class was acquired, the company announced on Friday. This is in line with the strategy of expanding the wind and photovoltaic portfolio to around 500 gigawatt hours per year by 2030. There was no information about the purchase price.
For 8,500 households
The two wind turbines in the district of Verden have been in operation since the beginning of the year. The hub height of the wind turbines is 125 meters each, the diameter of the rotors is 150 meters. More than 2,600 full-load hours per year should result in the windy region in north-west Germany, and the expected annual production of 30 million kilowatt hours is enough to power around 8,500 households. The technical and commercial management is carried out by Bremer Energiekontor AG.
As the wind utility also announced, the purchase contract for the turbines was signed in December 2021. Construction began in spring 2022, and the wind turbines were installed last autumn.
Wind turbines in Vorarlberg still a long way off
In Vorarlberg itself, the construction of wind turbines is – if at all – a long way off. Just last Tuesday, Governor Markus Wallner (ÖVP) and the regional councilor responsible for energy, Daniel Zadra (Greens), presented a wind potential analysis. According to this, only 4.3 percent of the state area can be considered as a location for larger wind turbines according to technical and topographical criteria.
The country itself does not want to build or operate wind turbines. Whether the state-owned energy supplier Illwerke vkw wants to do that is its operational decision, said Zadra, who is also a member of the illwerke vkw supervisory board.
