WPD has announced it will pay more than €4m via the newly introduced voluntary municipal tax to all local communities for all wind farms owned by the company from January 1st, 2023.
The German developer currently has more than 900MW of onshore wind energy in its portfolio.
From January 1, 2023, the new EEG will allow operators of wind farms to pay municipalities directly for the first time, up to a maximum of 0.2 ct/kWh.
Municipalities can therefore not only send a strong signal for climate protection and the energy transition, but also provide economic impetus for regional development, for example, to strengthen the municipal infrastructure or to promote various clubs in the fields of sports or culture.
WPD is one of the leading project developers and operators of wind farms in Germany and the company would like the communities where its projects are located to participate in this success story, it said.
“We will make the voluntary contribution to over 100 municipalities in which WPD operates wind farms. For WPD, this will probably result in costs of over €4m in the coming year,” says WPD board member Dr. Hartmut Brösamle.
“We are very pleased that the municipalities are finally benefiting financially from our wind farms to a greater extent. And of course we will also pay the fee for all our future wind farms in Germany.”
With this, WPD is building on a high and increasing level of acceptance among the communities and hopes for further projects for the future of the energy transition in Germany.