Mercedes-Benz AG and the energy park developer UKA (Umweltgerechte Kraftanlagen GmbH & Co. KG) have received permission to start installation of a wind farm at the Mercedes-Benz test track in Papenburg, northern Germany. By 2027, 20 wind turbines with a capacity of 140 megawatts (MW) will be built on the site as part of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Around 20 percent of the annual electricity requirements of Mercedes-Benz Group AG in Germany can be covered by this after commissioning.
“The wind farm in Papenburg is an important building block of our sustainable business strategy – from an ecological and also an economic perspective,” said Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, responsible for Production, Quality and Supply Chain Management Joerg Burzer. “The start of construction impressively illustrates that we are consistently putting our ambitious sustainability goals for the production network into practice and thus achieving a measurable impact. We are pleased with the great progress made and are proud as Mercedes-Benz, together with our strong partners, to expand the use of wind energy in Germany with the new wind farm in Papenburg.”
Gernot Gauglitz, Managing Partner of the UKA Group added: “I am proud of the fact that we, as owners of the future wind farm, will be supplying Mercedes-Benz AG with electricity for the next 25 years. This project shows that UKA, which generates its own climate-friendly electricity, is an attractive supplier of electricity even to large industrial corporations. Despite some challenges – for example at the construction site – the project team is pressing ahead with the construction of the wind farm in record time. The wind farm on the Mercedes-Benz testing area is a flagship project in our portfolio of onshore wind farms currently under construction in Germany, representing more than 1.5 GW in total.”
Mercedes-Benz and UKA are cooperating with further partners for the construction of the wind farm. The 20 wind turbines with a total nominal output of 140 MW come from the German manufacturer Nordex. The concrete foundations and concrete parts for the hybrid towers with a hub height of 164 metres come from Max Bögl Wind AG.
The approximately 800-hectare Papenburg test track has been an integral part of the company’s research and development activities since 1998. With the project, Mercedes-Benz is expanding its green electricity portfolio in the medium term and at the same time actively supporting the expansion of onshore wind energy in Germany. The planning for the implementation of the wind farm project by UKA and the ecologically sustainable use of the area is being carried out in close coordination with the responsible local authorities and local stakeholders.
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