The Lower Austrian state government has approved Ökoenergie’s repowering of its 16MW Pillichsdorf wind farm including an expansion of the site, boosting the capacity at the array to 56MW.
The environmental impact assessment was completed positively and in the future, the site will supply clean, green electricity for more than 33,000 households.
“We are pleased that our second repowering project – after the six new wind turbines in Schrick – has now been approved with the seven new wind turbines in Pillichsdorf,” said Ökoenergie managing director Manfred Schamböck.
He added: “This means our repowering initiative is gaining momentum. In total, we want to modernise and expand seven of our wind farms.”
As a first step, four of seven wind turbines in the Obersdorf wind farm in the municipality of Wolkersdorf will be replaced.
As soon as the grid capacity is available, five wind turbines will be dismantled in the Pillichsdorf site and replaced by seven new machines, more than tripling capacity at the wind farm, which has been supplying clean green electricity for the region since 2006.
Thanks to the company’s repowering and expansion project, electricity yield increases almost fourfold from 28 million kWh to 105 million kWh per year, it said.
This is converted to the average consumption of green electricity for more than 33,000 households.
“Together with the state of Lower Austria, the energy transition in Pillichsdorf is being pushed forward. Both the environment and the population benefit from the cooperation,” said Florian Faber, Mayor of Pillichsdorf.
LH deputy Stephan Pernkopf added: “We are primarily focusing on the modernisation of old plants, because in this way we are expanding renewable energy production, increasing energy independence and reducing carbon dioxide emissions back and at the same time use our land sparingly.”
In addition to the currently around 800 wind turbines in Lower Austria, another 200 will be added in the next few years. However, the amount of wind power can even be doubled because existing wind turbines are replaced by modern, much more efficient systems, said Ökoenergie.
“Lower Austria is and remains Austria’s green electricity locomotive,” said Pernkopf.
“We are the country with the most green electricity and the greatest CO2 savings: CO2 emissions have fallen by over a third since 2005!
“At the same time, around 800 wind turbines and 120,000 PV systems generate around 40 percent of the renewable electricity in all of Austria. And we are massively expanding the networks.”
Pictured celebrating the approval are deputy governor Stephan Pernkopf with Manfred Schamböck and Richard Kalcik from Ökoenergie Wolkersdorf as well as the mayors Florian Faber and Dominic Litzka.