Westerwald II wind project

ENERTRAG SE is planning to erect a total of six wind turbines in the Hauser Wald forest in Hesse on the border with Rhineland-Palatinate, located between the municipalities of Dornburg, Waldbrunn, Neunkirchen and Irmtraut.

ENERTRAG has been developing the wind farm since 2014. In addition to the informal involvement of local politicians, this has involved carrying out numerous studies and expert reports in preparation for the permit application. With the concrete preparation of the permit application now underway, this website has also been launched to provide ongoing public information on the progress of the project.

According to yield forecasts, the six planned Nordex N149 wind turbines, each with 5.7 megawatts (MW), will produce around 69,000 MWh of clean electricity per year. This means that around 19,000 households in the region can be supplied with locally generated, sustainable energy. The converted electrical energy can also save over 50,000 tons of CO2 annually.

ENERTRAG is thus acting for a clean and secure future for the benefit of the people in the country and future generations on the basis of 100% renewable energies.

Citizen information on the wind farm project in Hauser Wald dated 20/01/2023

01/30/2023

Around 150 local residents took up the invitation to find out more about the wind farm project in Hauser Wald with great interest on January 20.

You can read the detailed report directly on the Publication page of the municipality of Waldbrunn (Westerwald). Thank you for your interest and the good exchange.

Click here for the follow-up report on the information event Wind power | Waldbrunn - Westerwald

Location and planning area

The planning area is located in Hauser Wald, on land belonging to the municipalities of Waldbrunn, Dornburg and HessenForst.

The wind suitability area in question is suitable for the construction of wind turbines according to regional planning criteria and is designated as priority area 1103 in the 2019 Central Hessen Energy Sub-regional Plan. This is an area which, according to the list of criteria, maintains a sufficient protective distance from residential buildings with regard to noise and shadow emissions and is not located in any nature conservation area or water protection area III.

In the Central Hesse region, 127 areas covering approx. 12,100 hectares have been designated as wind priority areas. This corresponds to 2.2 percent of the region's area.

Approval procedure and timetable

The plan is to submit the complete application for approval in accordance with Section 4 BImSchG to the RP Gießen in mid-2023. Approval is expected to be granted at the end of 2024.

We will keep you informed about the next steps here.

Wind energy im Forst

Several dry years, storm events and pest infestations have taken a heavy toll on forests in Germany, and the drought years of 2018 to 2020 in particular meant that in some regions soils dried out to a depth of 1.80 meters, foliage was shed prematurely and the bark beetle was able to spread en masse. In Hesse, forests make up around 42 percent of the state's land area, or around 894,000 hectares. Here, too, some of the forest areas are severely damaged - the results of the 2022 forest condition survey show that the Hessian forest has been in a persistently poor state of vitality since 2019 (Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection: Forest Condition Report 2022).

Wind energy can provide partial relief. There is therefore much to be said for the use of wind turbines in forests: Wind energy in Germany recently saved 100.9 million tons of greenhouse gases that would otherwise affect the forest (Bundesverband Windenergie 2021: Windenergie im Forst. How wind energy contributes to forest protection). In addition, the compensation of built-up areas through reforestation and forest conversion measures promotes the creation of climate-resistant forest stands.

In the revised State Development Plan (LEP) of 2018, the state government of the CDU and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen committed to promoting the expansion of wind energy in Hesse by providing suitable state-owned forest land. The basis for the construction of wind turbines in forests in Hesse is provided by the third ordinance amending the LEP. According to this, the construction of wind turbines in forests is possible under certain conditions. In the case of this project in Hauser Wald, particular care is taken to ensure that the existing road network is used primarily as access routes and that no young beech stands are cleared.

Photo: Fork in the path in the Hauser Wald priority area: view towards WTG D5 (towards the car)

System technology

The six Nordex N149 wind turbines, each with a rated output of 5.7 MW, have a hub height of 164 m and a rotor diameter of 149 m. This results in a total height of 238.5 m.

To the manufacturer page N149/5.X - Nordex SE

Citizen and municipal participation

Participation takes many forms. In addition to informal participation within the planning process, it is of course also about economic participation. It is also about ensuring that residents and communities in the vicinity of wind farms benefit appropriately from local wind power generation.

Participation in accordance with Section 6 EEG (Renewable Energy Sources Act)

Since the EEG 2021, Section 6 has made it possible to offer municipalities within a radius of 2,500 meters of new wind turbines a unilateral grant or financial participation without consideration. The law does not yet apply retroactively to existing wind farms, but only to newly commissioned WTGs. The grant fulfills the following important criteria: It is to be offered voluntarily and is not earmarked for a specific purpose, it is not included in the calculation of the district levy and is paid annually over the entire 20-year EEG term of the WTG. The amount of the payment depends on the annual amount of energy fed into the grid by the WTG. ENERTRAG regularly offers this voluntary contribution to all municipalities in the specific project areas and is also prepared to do so in this specific project.

In the Westerwald II project, ENERTRAG is planning an annual energy feed-in volume of an estimated 69,000 megawatt hours (MWh). This feed-in quantity multiplied by the amount of EUR 2 per megawatt hour (0.2 cents/kWh) payable under Section 6 of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) results in a calculated sum of an estimated EUR 138,000 per year, which in turn is divided proportionately according to the municipal area or the area of the surrounding municipalities within a 2.5 km radius of the respective WTG, and is paid to the municipalities annually over the period of operation of the WTG.