OREANDA-NEWS. The municipality of Bedburg and RWE Innogy have yesterday signed a cooperation agreement concerning participation in a wind farm project on the Konigshovener Hohe. The shareholder agreement provides for the municipality of Bedburg to be able to take a share of up to 49 percent of the wind farm planned to the north of the town. The project is presently being developed on a recultivation zone of around 345 hectares in size of the Garzweiler open cast mine. This involves the biggest wind farm planned by RWE Innogy in Germany. A total of 21 wind energy units with an output of around 60 megawatts (MW) will be built in the wind concentration zone designated by the municipality of Bedburg, the Konigshovener Hohe. Planning permission for the construction of the wind farm is expected towards the end of this year.

Gunnar Koerdt, the mayor of Bedburg, explains: „The energy turn around has already arrived at the municipal level. Only with a participation of the municipalities can we ensure that the added value remains in our area. The set up of the agreement with RWE is very flexible and enables a participation of up to 49 per cent in construction and operation of the wind farm. The final decision regarding the amount of the participation will be taken as soon as all questions of cost and performance have been fully clarified. The available data already shows that this project for both partners will be extremely rewarding. The city of Bedburg may agreed in due course to a 49 per cent participation. All citizens will benefit from the results through the city budget. I am pleased that, up to now, the Council of Bedburg has taken all necessary decisions for the wind farm by a large majority and also the Local Government Supervisory Authority accompanied the project with criticism but quite favorably.”

Dr. Hans Bunting, CEO of RWE Innogy GmbH, says: “North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rhine coalfield in particular are of central significance to us when it comes to expansion of wind energy on land. I am delighted that we have now created a framework with the municipality of Bedburg for future cooperation, which is standing for acceptance and added value in the region.” Over the last two years, RWE Innogy has already been able to realise two further projects in the Rhine coalfield with the wind farms in Titz (20 MW) and Juchen (7 MW). The Titz wind farm that went onto the grid in the autumn of 2012 in the district of Duren is being operated within the Green Gecco consortium. This involves a joint venture of RWE Innogy and 29 municipal utilities that have set the expansion of renewable energies as a priority.

“The energy turnaround in Germany and Europe is a mammoth task to be borne on many shoulders, so we are quite consciously opening our projects to partners and are offering private and public sector investors various cooperation models. We plan to intensify the cooperation with local councils and communities in Germany still further in the future,” stresses Bunting.

RWE Innogy is being supported thereby by its sister companies RWE Power and RWE Deutschland AG. RWE Power supports in the Rhenin Area The local government support people of the sales company are informing the municipal representatives of the various participation models together with the wind farm developers. As co-owners of wind farms, local councils and communities can benefit directly from the income of the wind farms in addition to the trade taxes collected.