Electricity from wind energy: January set an all-time record

On January 25, electricity consumption in Burgenland reached about 5.5 gigawatts per hour. The electricity generated by wind power in Burgenland that day was five times its own consumption. In terms of area, Burgenland is the most important wind country in Austria. More than a third of wind turbines operate in Burgenland. There are 465 in total. The majority revolve around Parndorf (Neusiedl am See district).

In winter, they provide a particularly valuable service: the wind is constantly blowing, while solar and hydropower tend to be quiet. One of the companies that operates a wind farm in Parndorf is Ökostrom AG. This wind farm alone generated so much electricity in January that all households in Parndorf could be supplied with electricity for a year, said Ulrich Strebel, CEO of Ökostrom AG, in an interview with ORF Burgenland.

Burgenland Energie is the largest producer of wind energy

The largest producer of wind energy in Burgenland is Burgenland Energy (44 percent), where nearly half of the amount is produced. Parndorf Püspök comes in second place with approximately 28%, followed by ImWind with just under 15%. The rest (13%) goes to smaller companies such as Ökostrom AG.

Even small providers have large systems

But the smaller Ökostrom AG also has large wind turbines, says Strebel. He points to a modern system with a capacity of 4.2 megawatts. The gondola alone is 135 meters high, and the tip of the blade reaches 236 metres. Strebel says that this system produces in one hour the equivalent of what a family needs in one year.

“Re-empowerment”: from small to large

Burgenland Energie has used the past year to pivot from small caps to large caps. Large new systems are twice as powerful as old systems. The technical term is “reenergy,” says Stefan Sharma, CEO of Burgenland Energy.

“We have dismantled 20-year-old wind turbines, which were 61 wind turbines in number. We have built new systems that are much higher at 240 meters compared to the old ones that were 80 metres,” says Sharma. Less than the wind turbines in Burgenland.”

This year, the wind farms in Neusiedl, Weiden and Deutschkreutz will be “repowered”. New wind turbines from Burgenland Energie are being built this year in central Burgenland – in Nikić, Grosswarasdorf and Horrichon.

Hybrid gardens: wind energy with photovoltaics

One development that all operators are joining in is the construction of hybrid parks – a combination of wind and photovoltaic energy. The next step is to create “super hybrid parks,” says Lukas Bosbock, managing director of Bosbock Renewable Energy.

“What we will implement for the first time this year is that we will also add a large storage facility to such a hybrid project. The first project will be implemented in Nickelsdorf using wind turbines, a photovoltaic system and a large storage facility. There are already plans to implement this in other locations in Burgenland,” says Bosbock. .

However, this development has not yet reached everywhere in Austria. There is not a single wind turbine in western Austria – Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Salzburg.