Following on from the commissioning of a 61MW PV park on the site of a former military airfield in Brandenburg, Germany saw another land conversion project come to fruition with the commissioning of a 13.6MW wind farm on the recultivated site of an old opencast lignite mine in the Rhine district of Neuss.

Two of the turbines will be operated by RWE Innogy, the other two by the company’s cooperation partner, BMR Windenergie. The project will produce up to 32,500 MWh of power per year.

“Jüchen is the second wind power project taken into service by RWE Innogy in the Rhenish lignite mining area,” said Dr. Hans Bünting, CEO of RWE Innogy. “In the rural district of Düren ten wind turbines are already turning at the Titz wind farm which has also been developed jointly with BMR Windenergie.” Titz wind farm has an installed capacity of 20MW.

“The commissioning of wind farm Jüchen is a clear sign for the expansion of renewable energy in the region as well as for the employment of newest technologies,” said Guido Beckers, CEO of BMR Windenergie. “The onshore turbines of the 3MW class used on the former surface mine territory are the most powerful of their kind.”

Meanwhile, RWE Innogy is also set to complete the re-powering of an older wind farm in Hörup in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Four older wind turbines have been dismantled and replaced with three more powerful turbines. This means that the current wind farm has been reduced from four to three turbines while its installed capacity has grown from 2MW to 8MW, and is expected to produce approximates 17,000 MWh per year.

The Hörup wind farm, like the wind farm at Titz, was taken over by the joint venture company Green Gecco upon commissioning. The joint venture comprises 29 municipal utilities and regional suppliers (49%) and RWE Innogy (51%). Thus Green Gecco has 58MW installed wind energy capacity.