Vattenfall: Repowering Project To Involve Local Energy Cooperative

Vattenfall has announced to work together with energy cooperative Almeerse Wind to create a new Jaap Rodenburg wind farm. The repowered wind farm will consist of 10 wind turbines, of which two will be owned by Almeerse Wind after construction. The wind farm will have a total power of 38 MW which is enough electricity to power approximately 28,000 households.

“It's a unique project,” says Hidde Seidel, construction project manager and ultimately responsible for the construction of the farm on behalf of Vattenfall. “Almeerse Wind will generate its own energy with two of the ten turbines. In addition, local residents were given permission to decide the location of the wind turbines and a local construction company, Reimert Bouw en Infrastructuur, will take care of the construction of the wind farm prior to the installation of the wind turbines.”

Vattenfall Asset Development Manager Joost de Gooijer, who is responsible for the development of the wind farm, has been involved since 2017: “Vattenfall will take responsibility for the development of the wind farm, Almeerse Wind for the support for the farm. It is a sympathetic initiative: we are helping to make it possible for residents of Almere to benefit from the wind farm in the future. In the coming years we will see more of these kinds of initiatives in which we develop and operate part of a wind farm through local ownership. We will therefore work more often with local owners in the development of wind farms and this project is a good opportunity to gain experience."

Residents from the various residential areas surrounding the initiative in Almere were given the opportunity to discuss the location of the ten wind turbines.

“In addition to the input we received during the residents' evenings, the municipality of Almere conducted a digital survey among 15,000 addresses. In this survey, residents were asked about four alternative variants for the location of the wind turbines. A variant with 10 wind turbines, in which the existing turbines would also be dismantled at the same time, was ultimately chosen by most people. In this way, the municipality of Almere, Almeerse Wind, residents from the surrounding districts and we ultimately arrived at the current ten turbines by mutual agreement,” says Erik van Norren, Environmental Manager at Vattenfall.

The wind farm will become operational in the first quarter of 2021.