Bedburg A 44n – next new wind farm on former opencast mining site

RWE is planning to commence construction of another wind farm on a recultivated opencast mining site as early as next spring, after the company was successful at the latest German auction for onshore wind farms. The future “Bedburg A 44n” wind farm will be situated on a recultivated former opencast mining site near the new motorway section of the same name. There, five Nordex wind turbines with an installed capacity of 5.7 megawatts each and a hub height of 164 metres will be erected over the coming months. They are due to be commissioned early in 2022.

Just like nearby Königshovener Höhe wind farm (67.2 MW), the Bedburg A 44n project is a joint venture of RWE Renewables (51%) with the City of Bedburg (49%).

Four of the wind turbines will feed electricity into the grid using the existing RWE Power infrastructure at the Garzweiler opencast mine.

The fifth wind turbine will provide electricity into the grid via the Bedburg-Kaster resource conservation village, which is currently under construction. This is a housing project of 130 units with an innovative energy, architecture and urban development concept. The project is another joint venture between the City of Bedburg and RWE, with additional partners, including E.ON, Westnetz and the Faktor-X agency; it is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy programme “Regulatory Sandboxes for the Energy Transition”.

The planners’ vision is to use part of the electricity produced by the fifth turbine at Bedburg
A 44n wind farm to supply the resource conservation village with the help of an energy storage system, with the remainder feeding  into the grid system.

Katja Wünschel, COO Wind Onshore & Solar PV Europe & APAC of RWE Renewables:
“RWE is building yet another wind farm on a former opencast mining site. This is already the sixth one in the Rhenish mining district, where we will soon reach an installed wind power capacity of 200 megawatts. With this latest investment we are also taking another step towards implementing our ambitious strategy for reducing carbon emissions. By 2040, RWE as a whole will be carbon neutral.”

Sascha Solbach, Mayor of Bedburg: “The Rhenish mining district is in an excellent position to remain an energy-producing region – with conventional energy sources being phased out and renewables being expanded in the area. Energy transition and structural change will be more successful if we skillfully connect the different sectors to each other. In this region, our windfarm is the central link. And once we can link up the new wind farm and our resource conservation village, we will be leading the way in energy storage, distribution and utilisation here in Bedburg.”

RWE is expanding its onshore portfolio

RWE already operates onshore wind parks with a total installed capacity of approximately
650 MW in Germany. Currently, the company is constructing the Jüchen A44n cooperative wind farm (27 MW) in collaboration with NEW Re and the City of Jüchen. Six wind turbines are being erected on recultivated land, which was previously part of the Garzweiler opencast mine. Commissioning is planned for spring. RWE is also continuously expanding its international wind portfolio of more than 6 gigawatts (GW). In addition to the domestic market in Germany, the company is currently constructing onshore wind farms in the US, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Italy and the UK.