New renewable energy projects in Gratkorn and Ebreichsdorf

News about two green electricity projects was announced on Friday. The Verbund and Energie Styria have on Friday Gratcorn A new one north of Graz Run-of-river power plant on the Mur in operation taken. Around 100 million euros were invested. After around two and a half years of construction, the hydroelectric power plant now delivers an output of eleven megawatts with two turbines and generates around 54 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year for up to 15,000 households. The local population can see the new facility for themselves at an “open day” on Saturday.

The plan has been in existence for 12 years

Electricity from hydropower is currently the most important renewable energy source in Styria. “The hydroelectric power plants on the Mur form the backbone of renewable electricity generation in Styria. The run-of-river power plants deliver Domestic energy that can be planned all year round“, says Verbund managing director Michael Amerer.

The plans for the power plant go back more than ten years. There had already been a legally valid notice for the construction since 2012, “but the economic situation made implementation by 2021 impossible,” Amerer explained during commissioning. The association now operates the Gratkorn power plant in Styria 43 hydroelectric power plants and four of them (Gössendorf, Kalsdorf, Graz and Gratkorn) are operated jointly with Energie Steiermark.

Wind farm with nine turbines in Ebreichsdorf

In Lower Austria Ebreichsdorf sat Vienna Energy Meanwhile, the groundbreaking ceremony for a new wind farm. Vienna Energy built nine new wind turbines of the Vestas V117 type with a total output of 31 megawatts and invested around 56 million euros. The wind farm will be one of Wien Energie’s most powerful systems and will generate 68,000 megawatt hours of climate-neutral electricity annually. That’s enough to supply around 20,000 households – or three times Ebreichsdorf.

The plan has been in existence for 13 years

The planned commissioning of the first systems of the new wind farm is scheduled for the end of 2025, and all systems are expected to be completed in mid-2026. Planning for the Ebreichsdorf wind farm began in 2011. Since then the project has had a long approval phase and was thoroughly checked as part of nature conservation studies to ensure compliance with all relevant environmental standards. Wien Energie invested 50 million euros in the project.

An important part of the project was the Involvement of citizens locally and the community. The last referendum showed that the majority of the population approved of the wind farm.