Mercedes to build large-scale wind farm to green test track
Luxury carmaker also examines adding PV installations to R&D track in northern Germany as part of effort to cover all global production plants with renewables by 2039
Mercedes-Benz has picked developer UKA to build a 120MW wind farm on the carmaker's test track in Papenburg, northern Germany.
The array is to feature about 20 turbines and is slated to be completed by the middle of the decade, pending the necessary regulatory approvals. The power purchase agreement (PPA) linked to it will be sufficient to cover about a fifth of the annual power needs of the carmaker in Germany.
“Mercedes-Benz is proud to be making an important contribution to the expansion of wind energy in Germany with the new wind farm in Papenburg,” said Jörg Burzer, management board member at Mercedes-Benz Group, Production and Supply Chain Management.
“By 2039, we intend to cover the energy needs of our global production network entirely with renewable energies, and therefore without CO2 emissions. We are systematically gearing our locations up for this.”
The company is also looking into installing PV systems on the test track, which is an integral part of its research and development activities.
“We at UKA are very pleased that a tender was decided in our favour and are proud to be able to implement this project together with Mercedes-Benz,” UKA managing director Gernot Gauglitz said.
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