Energiekontor has reached the financial close stage of the 33MW Oederquart repowering project in the district of Stade in Lower Saxony.
The scheme, which is now ready for construction, will be partly sold and partly included in the company’s own portfolio.
Energiekontor received a building permit for the project in summer 2023, enabling it to successfully participate in the renewables tender by the Bundesnetzagentur, the German Federal Network Agency, in autumn 2023.
The Oederquart repowering project has since progressed to financial close. Now the loan for the scheme has been approved, work can begin on dismantling the existing site and constructing the new wind park.
The 10 Enercon turbines at the array, each with a generation capacity of 1.5MW, are to be replaced by six new, more powerful units from the same manufacturer, each with a nominal power of around 5.6MW.
The new E-160 EP5 turbines have a hub height of roughly 120 metres and a rotor diameter of approximately 160 metres. By more than tripling the total generation capacity to around 33MW once complete, the repowered park’s forecast electricity yield will increase to more than 85 million kilowatt-hours a year – enough to supply some 26,000 households in Germany with renewable electricity and save roughly 65,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
“Repowering existing sites is an important part of our business,” said Energiekontor chief executive Peter Szabo.
“In the coming years, more and more wind turbines will be phased out of the guaranteed remuneration system under the German Renewable Energies Act.
“We are systematically seizing these opportunities. Thanks to our many years of expertise in this area, we can now also contribute to achieving Germany’s installation targets by the end of 2030 with our project in Oederquart.
“Legacy facilities are very important in our project development activities. Not only do they provide long-term, site-specific data on wind levels, we can also make use of the existing infrastructure there, allowing us to plan our projects in the best possible way and realise them in a cost-conscious manner, also in economically challenging times.”
Energiekontor planned and built Oederquart wind park around 25 years ago. Since then, it has been operating two of the 10 existing wind turbines in its own portfolio at the Osterende wind park.
The developer plans to sell part of the project and incorporate three of the six new turbines into its own park portfolio, expanding the total generation capacity of the Group’s portfolio by around 17MW.
In February 2024, Energiekontor most recently commissioned the sold repowering wind park project in Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, with approximately 11MW.
It has also received six further building permits since the beginning of the 2024 financial year, including for three wind projects in Germany (around 35MW in total).
The company has likewise received the go-ahead for its two first solar projects in France (around 44MW in total), and for a British wind project (66MW).
Aside from the British site, all of the schemes are intended for the group’s own portfolio. In addition, two German solar parks with a total capacity of more than 70MW are currently under construction and are to be transferred to the company’s own portfolio by the end of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 respectively once they are commissioned.