RWE has decided to voluntarily share revenues from its wind farms and utility-scale solar parks with the German municipalities in which these assets are based.
From 1 January 2023, the “RWE Climate Bonus” will apply in principle to both existing and future RWE plants after commissioning.
The amendment of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) makes this possible.
RWE said it sees the voluntary payment as a “good opportunity to significantly improve the acceptance of the energy transition locally”.
Municipalities that rely on renewable energy produced by RWE can potentially use the additional revenues to financially strengthen municipal facilities such as day-care centres, schools or fire brigades.
So far, according to the law, only municipalities in which wind turbines have been approved since January 2021 have been able to benefit.
They were able to participate with up to 0.2 euro cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) of the electricity sold by the local wind turbines.
Municipalities with existing wind farms have not yet been taken into account by the law.
Katja Wünschel, CEO Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia at RWE Renewables, said: “A clean and secure power supply requires the expansion of renewable energies.
“The prerequisites for this are areas for wind and solar plants as well as the acceptance of local people – also for existing projects.
“If we municipalities participate financially in the profits of renewable energy plants, everyone benefits. The voluntary municipal levy can help to accelerate the energy transition.”
Since the “climate bonus” is paid per kWh of electricity generated, municipalities with high-performance systems benefit in particular, RWE stated.
This creates an additional incentive to replace older units with modern ones.
In April of this year, for example, RWE replaced 15 aging turbines at its Krusemark-Ellingen wind farm with six modern, more powerful, turbines.
The site now has a total installed capacity of 19.8 megawatts (MW), compared to 15.7MW previously.
With this repowering, RWE was able to increase electricity production at the site by around 300%.
The municipalities in which these six wind turbines are located can expect revenues of around €120,000/year from 2023, which would be €40,000/year without repowering.
RWE currently operates around 90 wind farms nationwide.
In order to allow municipalities to participate financially in the wind turbines, the company plans to spend around €3m in the coming year.
The company informs its existing partners by letter about the financial participation.