Our industry was built on fresh ideas, novel solutions and new methodologies, and so with that approach in mind, we’d like to introduce you to Baden-Württemberg – a German state that’s very much open for wind business…
The future belongs to renewable energy. The greater shortage of conventional resources and the more urgent the ecological problems become, the more this insight will be accepted. Wind energy is one outstanding form of renewable energy. The objective in Baden-Württemberg is for ten per cent of electricity requirements to be covered by wind energy by the year 2020. This goal can only be achieved if the sector is expanded dynamically on a grand scale. To this end, the state government has improved the general conditions by changing the law and has initiated support for the planning process.
From the gamete to wind power development
Baden-Württemberg can look back on a long tradition of wind-energy research and development. As early as the post-war years, research activity took a brisk upturn and, in the 1950s, a wind test field was set up on the Swabian Alb, while researchers were creating important foundations for the later expansion of wind energy in Germany.
… a late starter regarding expansion
In contrast, Baden-Württemberg has been left behind in recent decades in the expansion of wind energy generation, whereby it comes last even among the federal states of the south. In 2011, only nine new turbines were erected. But this is now set to change. The green-red government wants to cover ten per cent of electricity requirements from local wind power by the year 2020, i.e. approximately 6.4 TWh. From a technical point of view and in terms of wind conditions, this is eminently possible. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, a total of around 1.200 wind turbines of the 3 MW class would have to be built. This means approximately 120 new wind turbines per year up to 2020.
In Baden-Württemberg, almost unnoticed by the public, there are many wind energy companies that are among the leaders in their field, both nationally and worldwide. They include several leaders of the world market in their segments of industry. According to the newly established Wind Cluster Baden-Württemberg, there are presently around 300 enterprises and institutions in the value-added chain of wind energy use in Baden-Württemberg, with an annual turnover of considerably more than one billion euros.
These include important companies such as LappKabel, Würth Industrie Services, Mahle, TII-Group and Wiesbauer Krane, whereby local companies participate in the entire value-added chain of wind energy generation. The expansion of wind energy use, it continues, means direct orders and economic success for Baden-Württemberg firms and, as a result, secure jobs.
