Official ground-breaking ceremony: vortex energy builds 22MW "Gadegast" wind farm

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

After three years' project development the construction work is starting on the eight wind turbines in Saxony-Anhalt

With the start of the foundation work for eight wind turbines in the district of Gadegast all those involved have reached a special milestone. The North Hesse all-round wind energy company vortex energy Deutschland GmbH has been developing the project for three years now and has succeeded in selling it to a large German institutional investor. As the general contractor, vortex energy will be performing the construction work in the period April to September 2016. After commissioning, vortex energy will also take charge of the wind farm’s technical and commercial management.

The company, which is based in Kassel, has developed the project from the “green field” stage since it was included in the regional plan of Anhalt-Bitterfeld Wittenberg as a priority wind energy area in 2013. There was intensive debate and in some cases resistance, but then overall approval was achieved and vortex energy was able to prevail over the competing project companies, its having planned and designed the wind farm with the consent of the town of Zahna-Elster and concluded the necessary agreement with the landowners concerned. After a total project planning time of three years it also successfully obtained the approval under federal pollution control legislation (BImSchG) for eight wind turbines.

The wind turbines of the type GE 2.75 MW with a total height of around 200 metres are being erected in the municipal area of the town of Zahna-Elster. Each turbine has an electrical output of 2.75 megawatt. The hub is at a height of 139 metres and the rotor diameter is 120 metres. "Being in the 3 MW class, the turbines chosen are ideally suited to this wind farm," explains Philipp Jeske, CEO of vortex energy Deutschland GmbH.

"After commissioning, which is scheduled for the end of September, vortex energy will also be taking charge of the operational management. It is important to us that we are for investors a comprehensively competent partner, that we successfully prepare the wind farm for marketing, while meeting all statutory specifications, and that as the operational manager we remain a contact partner for at least a decade. This involves considerable trust," Dr. Florian Leuthold, COO, vortex energy Holding AG, stresses.

The "Gadegast" will supply around 16,250 households with an annual output of about 65 million kilowattt hours of green electricity. With these turbines it is possible to save an annual amount of more than 37,000 tonnes of CO2 as compared with the energy generation mix in Germany, which is still dominated by fossil fuels. "A further step on the road to 100% energy supply from renewables," says Dr. Till Jeske, founder and CEO the vortex energy Group, "We regard the decentralised generation of energy from renewables as the key to the future and we want to make a major contribution to the energy turnaround in Europe," Jeske states.

Vortex energy was founded in 2004 and currently employs 65 people in Kassel and Szczecin . The company specialises in the planning, construction and operation of wind turbines and solar power installations in Germany and Poland. Since 2010 vortex energy has been among the top three leading Polish companies on the wind energy market. To date vortex energy has constructed 16 wind farms with a joint capacity of 340 megawatt in Germany and Poland. Since February 2015 vortex energy has had a concession in Poland as a supplier of electricity trading and balancing. The vortex energy Group includes vortex energy Deutschland GmbH and vortex energy Polska Sp. z o.o.

Comment by GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW: While wind farms may be better than fossil fuel power station of all types, including gas and bio-gas, in general we, that is especially government and industry, are still not getting it.

Instead of ever taller wind turbines with ever larger blades what really is needed is a total rethink on more than one level.

First of all we need to reduce our consumption of energy, in this case electricity, and secondly we need to re-engineer homes and businesses to work on lower voltages so that thirdly by use of small wind and solar all homes and business become, more or less, independent from any outside supply of electricity.

Most appliances today run on a much lower voltage than 220/240 volt AC. They do not need that kind of power. Most work on 12 volt DC, or even below that, and lighting also, with LEDs could be on that voltage. This, however, would require a different circuitry in the home and would, with small wind and solar panels, make every building energy independent. That, however, is something that the powers-that-be and industry just do not wish to ever happen.

Small wind turbines (and efficient solar panels) on every roof, combined with a predominately 12 volt DC system, would make power stations more or less obsolete, including large wind turbines, and would make every house independent from the power companies. The problem is that the political will is not there and we will be told, no doubt, should we be demanding such changes, that thousands of jobs would be lost.

The truth of the matter is that energy independence of people is something that, for some reason, the powers-that-be are extremely scared of and that is why they try their damnedest, as can be seen by some many actions they take against off-gridders in the land of the free and the home of the brave, to prevent this. People who are independent from such sources as power and food are dangerous in the eyes of those that wish to control the masses.

© 2016