Statkraft is to supply electricity to Mercedes-Benz Cars factories in Germany from six community-owned wind farms in the country with a combined capacity of 46MW.
Power will be supplied to facilities in Bremen as well as to the German battery production locations at Kamenz and Stuttgart-Unterturkheim.
The six wind farms comprise 31 turbines and are located about 25km from Hanover in Lower Saxony and Bassum 30km south of Bremen.
The projects generate about 74 gigwatt-hours a year and were commissioned between 1999 and 2001.
Subsidies for the wind farms through the German renewable energy act will run out after 20 years.
Statkraft said the electricity delivered will be integrated into an existing supply contract by Enovos Energie Deutschland.
Enovos ensures the accounting, the grid use and the integration of the green power supply into the energy portfolio of the Mercedes-Benz plants.
Statkraft Germany managing director Carsten Poppinga said: “This agreement underlines our leading position in Europe in the direct supply of industrial customers with power from non-subsidised renewable assets.
“Operation without subsidies is often possible when market-oriented action, targeted marketing and efficient plant operations come together.”
Mercedes-Benz Cars production and supply chain divisional management board member Carsten Poppinga said: “At Mercedes-Benz Cars operations, we are pursuing the strategy digital, flexible and green in our global production organisation.
“This also includes that we will supply all our German plants with CO2-neutral energy by 2022.
“As the first industrial company in Germany, we are using electricity from six wind farms and thereby ensure their continued operation already today. In doing so, we are taking an important step in realising our CO2-neutral production operations and are underscoring our social responsibility.”
Enovos Energie Deutschland managing director Andreas Loh said: “Integrating the renewable energies that are not subsidised by the Renewable Energy Sources Act into traditional energy delivery models will be of key importance for our target market of major industrial companies in the future.
“With this in mind, successfully rolling out the delivery of green power to our long-standing energy customer Daimler, together with Statkraft, is an important step.”
The green electricity will be used for production of Mercedes-Benz’s EQC electric car (pictured).