RWE has put the Lesse and Barbecke wind farms, which are located next to each other in Lower Saxony, back into full operation following their repowering.
During the upgrade, 17 wind turbines, which were around 20 years old were replaced by 11 more powerful machines.
The new turbines can capture more wind and produce green electricity even at low wind speeds.
The wind farms now have a total capacity of 61.8MW, more than twice the previous total (30.6MW).
The town of Salzgitter as well as the municipalities of Lengede, Burgdorf and Sohlde are expected to make a profit of up to €280,000 per year from the wind farms (picture of Horup wind farm in Germany, owned by RWE).
Katja Wunschel, CEO of RWE Renewables Europe & Australia, said: “Fewer turbines, twice the capacity.
This is the result of having successfully repowered the Lesse and Barbecke wind farms.
“We are particularly delighted to have finished the work sooner than planned due our dedicated on-site team and the excellent collaboration with our partner companies.
“This shows once again that RWE is accelerating the expansion of renewables.”
In Salzgitter-Lesse, 11 old wind turbines with a total capacity of 19.8MW were replaced by eight new turbines with a total capacity of 44.7MW.
In Barbecke six old turbines with a total capacity of 10.8MW were dismantled and three state-of-the-art wind turbines with a total capacity of 17.1MW were erected.