ENERCON secures project orders for 220 MW in Lower Saxony

ENERCON has secured new project orders for 220 MW in Lower Saxony. A total of 6 wind farms with 41 wind energy converters are planned for installation from next year onwards in the districts of Oldenburg, Diepholz, Nienburg and Verden. A corresponding framework agreement between the wind energy converter supplier and the customer consortium Schierloh Engineering GmbH and VR Energieprojekte Wildeshauser Geest GmbH was signed today (9 July) in Aurich.

‘We are very happy that we can continue this excellent cooperation with our regional partners’, says ENERCON Sales Director Stefan Lütkemeyer. ‘We have already worked together in a trusting collaboration on projects in Lower Saxony in past years. The fact that we will be driving forward the energy transition together in our region with new onshore projects even despite the difficult current framework conditions in Germany is especially pleasing.’

‘I am glad that, following two years of negotiations with various manufacturers, we have now found a reliable partner from the region in ENERCON. With its new EP5 and EP3 platforms, the company offered the best and most flexible portfolio for our locations. We also gave special consideration to the reliable service offered here in the region. As someone who used to work for the company, it was also to some extent a matter that was close to my own heart’, says Söhnke Schierloh, Managing Director of Schierloh Engineering GmbH.

Hermann Raschen, Managing Director of VR Energieprojekte Wildeshauser Geest GmbH, adds: ‘This framework agreement lays the foundations for more future projects. Having a regional partner like ENERCON fits well with the strategy we are pursuing in realising the community-owned wind farms: ‘From the region for the region’. It means the added value created will also be kept here in Lower Saxony. As well as this, we are pleased that ENERCON, as a long-standing German market leader, is continuing to keep its sights firmly on the German market.’

The signed framework agreement covered the supply of 41 wind energy converters from the new ENERCON EP5 and EP3 platforms (total capacity: 222.6 MW): more specifically, 38 wind energy converters made up of E-160 EP5 and E-147 EP5 E2 models, and 3 E-138 E2 wind energy converters. ‘For us, the framework agreement is also an acknowledgement of ENERCON’s latest-generation technology’, says Stefan Lütkemeyer. ‘The new EP5 and EP3 wind energy converter types reflect the trend towards a lower cost of energy that is particularly dominant in markets with tendering systems.’

All 6 projects are planned as community-owned wind farms by the initiators. In order to increase local acceptance for the projects, residents have the chance to participate in the wind farms either directly or in the form of savings certificates. The responsible municipalities are currently at the stage of drawing up the land use and development plans for the majority of the projects. This means the basic requirement for obtaining approval and being able to implement the projects realistically is met. Applications for German Federal Immission Control Act approval are already being prepared or processed. The horizon for implementation is between 2021 and 2023, depending on the project.

‘The negotiations on the agreement were not easy. In fact, they were very intensive and spanned two whole years. We are feeling an immense cost pressure as a manufacturer’, says ENERCON CEO Hans-Dieter Kettwig. ‘Solutions like the framework agreement signed today are only possible under the current market conditions if everybody sticks together. We thank our partners for continuing to put their trust in us at this difficult time and look forward to making a further contribution to the energy transition in Lower Saxony together. We will not relax our efforts to make this possible in other federal states too.’