Westphalia - Wind farms on the slopes of the Egge Hills

Sustainable development
978-3-14-100890-6 | Page 97 | Ill. 4
Westphalia | Wind farms on the slopes of the Egge Hills | Sustainable development | Karte 97/4

Overview

The small Egge Hills in East Westphalia offer the best natural conditions in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the use of wind energy. Wind farms are located close together here, including the largest wind farms in North Rhine-Westphalia. The wind speed given refers to a height of 135 m above the ground. This corresponded to the hub height of many wind turbines in recent decades. But with advancing technical development, wind turbines are getting higher and higher. Their rotors reach even greater heights, where the wind blows even stronger and more continuously. From a technical point of view, it is now possible to erect large wind turbines in forests or close to forest edges. For reasons of nature conservation and landscape protection, however, this is only possible to a limited extent. A minimum distance must also be maintained from the nearest settlements. Wind priority areas are therefore defined in spatial planning procedures.

Wind farms on the Paderborn Plateau

The Paderborn Plateau forms the western slope of the Egge Hills and has increasing wind energy potential from West to East as it rises to the Egge heights (Hausheide 441 m). The average wind speed on the plateau at an altitude of 135 m is more than one metre per second higher than in the valleys.

The wind turbines installed on the Paderborn Plateau are shown in a combination of the installed capacity and the period of commissioning. Through this presentation, the development in the addition of wind turbines over the last 30 years becomes clear.

From a physical point of view, the first wind turbines were erected in the most attractive locations, which appear small from today's perspective. The wind energy potential here allows an energy yield of up to 700 kWh/m². The larger wind turbines with higher capacities, that were added later, were also built in physically suitable wind priority areas. However, the wind speed there is already somewhat lower in these locations of lower altitude. The possible wind energy yield there is about 600 kWh/m².

In the meantime, land for the construction of onshore wind turbines has become scarce in Germany, also - and even more so - in these naturally favoured locations. While it is obvious, that the energy turnaround requires a rapid further expansion of wind energy, even in this model region for wind energy use, the social climate has become harsher on these issues and acceptance of wind farms seems to be waning.

To achieve the necessary balance of interests, the land-use plans of the municipalities of Paderborn, Altenbeken, Borchen and Lichtenau define the suitable and the prohibited areas for wind farms and adjust them in detail every few years.

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Repowering

Repowering is a current measure for more effective use of wind energy. The term describes the replacement of older, smaller wind turbines with larger, more powerful ones. Repowering must be approved in multi-stage regional planning procedures, too, because it is not possible to replace the turbines on a 1:1 basis. The newly planned wind turbines are taller, they need more distance from each other and sometimes also more distance from settlements. On the other hand, they can be placed a little closer to forests. Theoretically, they can even be erected in wooded areas, but this is not planned in the map section.

It is mainly due to wind power (but also to the use of biomass and solar energy indicated in the map) that the district of Paderborn is one of the few German districts able to cover 100% of its electricity needs from renewable energies.

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