Clean wind power for 35,000 households

Energieversorgung Offenbach AG (EVO) is expanding and further boosting its wind power business with a major project. Following the launch of operations with two wind power plants in Massenhausen in northern Hessen at the beginning of the year already, construction work is now underway on 23 turbines in Kirchberg on the border between the states of Hessen and Rheinland-Pfalz. "We aim to generate energy on a decentralised basis for our region and its population. Here, we are consistently relying on expanding our use of regenerative energies", commented Michael Homann, CEO of EVO.

The wind farm in Kirchberg (Hunsrück) will have the highest output of any such facility in south-western Germany. "The 23 wind turbines manufactured by Enercon have the capacity to generate electricity volumes of around 125 million kilowatt hours a year", reported Homann at the presentation of the project at the wind farm site. That corresponded to the electricity requirements of 35,000 three-person households. The technology was tried and tested, and Enercon was one of the world¿s leading wind power companies with longstanding market leadership in Germany. The project partner for the project in Kirchberg is the juwi Group in Wörrstadt, one of the leading renewable energies project developers.

According to Homann, his company intends to invest around Euro 150 million in wind power in the coming years. Its share of the electricity sold by EVO from proprietary generation is set to rise from 15 percent currently to 30 percent. "We supply clean energy from within our region to customers in our region. That protects the climate and makes us less dependent on global market prices for crude oil or natural gas", remarked the EVO manager. "Companies aiming achieve long-term growth have to act to protect the climate. The energy supply of the future will be decentralised, efficient and regenerative," he added.

The wind farm will be operated by Cerventus Naturenergie GmbH, a joint venture in which the juwi Group and EVO each own half of the shares. Matthias Willenbacher, Director of juwi, sees this major project as representing a successful example of cooperation across the state boundaries of Rheinland-Pfalz and Hessen. "By working together, we aim to show that a rapid switch to renewable energies is possible and can be financed", he commented. According to Willenbacher, cooperations between regional energy suppliers such as EVO and project developers such as juwi represent an important component in the energy turnaround. By jointly operating decentralised plants, suppliers could generate energy close to consumers and promote an independent, affordable and secure supply of clean energy to the population.

According to EVO's Technical Director, Dr. Kurt Hunsänger, rapid progress is being made with the wind farm, which will have a total output of 53 megawatts. Construction work is proceeding apace, and the first wind turbine has already been built and is ready to operate. "Each wind turbine has an output of 2.3 megawatts and a total height of 179 meters. The rotors have a diameter of 82 metres", reported Hunsänger.

The wind farm will enable around 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to be avoided each year. In all likelihood, the wind farm will be officially opened in early summer 2012. According to Hunsänger, Cerventus is currently reviewing further wind power projects. As the relevant contracts had not yet been signed, however, it was still to soon too report on these.

Cerventus

Together with the juwi Group, Energieversorgung Offenbach AG (EVO) founded Cerventus Naturenergie GmbH, based in Wörrstadt, in 2009. The company has set itself the objective of producing regenerative energy for the region and its population. In all, the company plans to implement wind power projects with a total nominal output of 100 megawatts.