Energy transition in Bedburg: City of Bedburg and RWE put new wind farm into operation

• Another wind farm with municipal participation in North Rhine-Westphalia connected to the grid
• “Bedburg A 44n” has the capacity to generate more green electricity than the city’s citizens and businesses consume
• Innovative supply concept uses existing open-cast mining infrastructure and energy storage facilities

On recultivated land at the Garzweiler open-cast mine, well-established partners, the city of Bedburg and RWE, successfully connect another wind farm with a capacity of 28.5 megawatts (MW) to the grid. The five wind turbines of the 30-million-euro “Bedburg A 44n” project have the capacity to generate enough green electricity to meet the annual needs of 28,000 households – more than the city’s citizens and businesses consume. The turbines complement the existing Königshovener Höhe wind farm, also part of the partnership, with 21 turbines and increases the electrical output by almost 30 percent. In total, RWE operates with the city of Bedburg turbines with a total capacity of 95 MW on the territory of the city.

In the case of “Bedburg A 44n”, it is not only the choice of location on recultivated land at the Garzweiler open-cast mine that is innovative: four of the new wind turbines feed their electricity into the public supply grid via  the existing infrastructure of the open-cast mine. The fifth turbine will supply electricity to the modern resource protection settlement Bedburg-Kaster, which is currently under construction. Part of the electricity from the fifth wind turbine supplies this settlement indirectly, sending a portion of its production to an energy storage system. The rest flows into the general supply grid.

Katja Wünschel, CEO Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia of RWE Renewables: “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. We want to realise every wind and solar project that is possible. To ensure that the energy turnaround succeeds, we also rely on successful partnerships with municipalities. We are pleased to be able to successfully commission another wind farm with the city of Bedburg.”

Sascha Solbach, mayor of the city of Bedburg: “Today is an important day for the city of Bedburg on our way to being CO₂-neutral by 2045. In the future, we will continue to support the expansion of renewables, invest in climate protection and set a good example as an energy municipality.”

As with the Königshovener Höhe wind farm, the city of Bedburg has a 49 percent stake in the new wind farm and RWE has a 51 percent stake.

In order to further raise citizens’ awareness of renewable energies in the Bedburg municipal area, RWE and the administration have planned and implemented a display of production data from the 21 existing wind turbines of the Königshovener Höhe and the five new wind turbines of the Bedburg A 44n extension on the municipal website. At www.bedburg.de (Concern A-Z – Climate Protection Management), six energy key figures can be called up, which are updated every five minutes. The key figures include the average output or production of the wind farm in the last ten minutes (MW), the average wind speed (m/s), the current electricity production since the beginning of the current calendar year (MWh), total electricity production (MWh), the saved CO₂ emissions since the beginning of the current calendar year (t) and the saved CO₂ emissions since installation (t).

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the current views, expectations and assumptions of management, and are based on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee the occurrence of future results and developments and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual future results and developments may deviate materially from the expectations and assumptions expressed in this document due to various factors. These factors primarily include changes in the general economic and competitive environment. Furthermore, developments on financial markets and changes in currency exchange rates as well as changes in national and international laws, in particular in respect of fiscal regulation, and other factors influence the company’s future results and developments. Neither the company nor any of its affiliates undertakes to update the statements contained in this press release.