innogy has secured a contract to build and operate Sommerlandonshore repowering project in Germany.

The contract was awarded by the German Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur, which confirmed that innogy tendered one of the most competitive bids. 

The auction was part of Germany’s new renewable energy rules under which contract for 70 projects were awarded for a total capacity of 807MW of onshore wind.

Germany’s Ministry For Economic Affairs and Energy stated that the average auction price was €5.71per kWh and bids from participating companies ranged between €5.25/kWh and €5.78/kWh.

Of the total 70 projects, 65 projects will be community-driven or co-operative wind projects. Out of the remaining five wind projects, about three projects will be undertaken by innogy.

Construction of the Sommerland wind farm is expected to start in third quarter of 2017 and the commissioning of the wind farm could take place in the spring of 2018.

innogy operates four 1.5MW wind turbines, delivered by manufacturer Enercon, in Sommerland in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The wind farm was extended in 2016 with the addition of four 2MW turbines, manufactured by Senvion.         

With projects such as Sommerland, innogy says that it has gradually expanded its onshore wind portfolio to more than 1.9GW of onshore capacity and 900MW of offshore capacity in Europe.

innogy renewables chief operating officer Hans Bünting said: “We are very pleased to have been awarded a contract for our Sommerland project during the first onshore wind power auction in Germany. We have thus shown we can successfully hold our own in a very competitive market environment.

“Moreover, it is further proof of the excellent work we have done in recent years. The award of the contract also demonstrates that we are a high-performance partner for developing and operating wind projects.

“Thanks to our extensive know-how and our approach to cooperating with partners on an individual basis, we are now one of the largest onshore wind farm operators in Europe. We intend to continue growing in our core markets and beyond.” 

Image: innogy wins contract to repower Sommerland onshore wind project in Germany. Photo: Courtesy of Steve Ralston/FreeImages.com.