Ground-breaking ceremony to expand wind farms in Dürnkrut and Velm-Götzendorf

Six additional wind turbines will be installed in the municipalities of Dürnkrut and Velm-Götzendorf. They will be constructed and operated by WEB Windenergie AG and Windkraft Simonsfeld AG. Municipal representatives and builders joined together for the ground-breaking ceremony held on May 14, 2022.

The two producers of wind power set up their first wind turbines in the March Region of Austria in 20212. At present, both companies operate nine wind power turbines each in Dürnkrut and Velm-Götzendorf. Now the ground-breaking ceremony has taken place for the third expansion phase of the wind farms. The foundations will be constructed in the autumn of 2022, and the wind turbines will be installed in the spring of 2023. Wind power generation is scheduled to commence in the middle of next year.

WEB Windenergie AG will put three new wind turbines into operation in the two municipalities in the second quarter of 2023. Two Vestas V162 wind turbines with a total capacity of 11.2 MW will be set up in Dürnkrut. In this way a total of 20,000 people can be provided with clean electricity each year in the future. One 5.6 MW Vestas V150 wind turbine will be installed in Götzendorf, supplying sustainably generated electricity to OMV, which in turn will manufacture green hydrogen by means of an electrolyzer. “The last weeks and months have made it clear to us how important regionally generated, clean electricity is,” states W.E.B CEO Frank Dumeier. “These two projects show how we can manage the task of ending our dependency and focusing on energy from Austria.” Götzensdorf’s Vice Mayor Karl Starnberger adds, “We are pleased that the Municipality of Velm-Götzendorf will continue to fulfil its role as a trailblazer and that wind power from Götzendorf will be an important part of sustainable energy production in Austria.”  

Windkraft Simonsfeld AG is also installing three Nordex N 163 wind turbines. They are the most powerful types deployed by the company whose headquarters are located in Ernstbrunn. Each of the three turbines will have a capacity of 5.7 MW to feed into the power grid. “We expect the three power plants to provide 45.5 million kWh of electricity each year. This amount corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of 11,400 households. As soon as the grid company has expanded its cables, we will be able to even feed an additional four million kWh into the power grid and supply an additional 1,000 households,” explains CTO of Windkraft Simonsfeld. “In this way we are taking a further step towards the energy transition and Austria’s energy autonomy. This is more important today than ever before.” Dürnkrut’s Mayor Herbert Bauch adds: “By expanding our wind farm, our municipality is making a valuable contribution in the fight against the climate and energy crisis, two of the most serious problems in our society. We can be proud of this!”