Deutsche Bahn buys power from Statkraft wind farms after support ends
Clean Energy Wire
Deutsche Bahn (DB) will help to continue the operation of two wind farms marketed by renewable energy supplier Statkraft, the two companies write in a press release. The more-than 20-year old wind turbines in the state of Lower Saxony were to be shut down after the planned expiry of support payments under the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) at the end of 2020. Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Statkraft have now signed a one-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to keep the wind farms running. Statkraft will supply around 40 gigawatt hours of green electricity in 2021 to the railway company, DB writes. The run time of the power delivery contract is kept short, as there are "hardly any empirical data on the reliability of wind turbines after 20 years of operation", DB said. “The continued operation will save around 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year compared to electricity supplied from coal-fired power,” they say.
In 2020, Deutsche Bahn secured 780 gigawatt hours of green electricity in three deals with power providers. The deals get the railway company closer to its goals of covering about 80 percent of its electricity needs using renewables by 2030 and running entirely on green electricity by 2038. Currently, around 61 percent of the railway’s electricity comes from sustainable sources, according to the company.
