Freiberg/Kryštofovy Hamry, Czech Republic – To celebrate Global Wind Day 2009, national and regional initiatives and events will take place on 15th June in more than 20 countries, with the objective of arousing enthusiasm globally for wind energy. In tandem with this, the Czech wind energy company ČSVE launched "Wind Day", which was celebrated in the Czech Republic on Saturday 13th June.
"We look on this as a chance to present the Czech Republic's largest wind farm to the public after receiving the permanent operating licence in December last year, and to drink a toast to this achievement with the Chairman of the Czech wind power association, Mr.Michael Janeček, the neighbouring communities of Vejprty, Měděnec and Kryštofovy Hamry, and everyone who has been involved," said Dr. Rainer Sack, eab Managing Director. Wind energy installations were opened to the public in 15 different locations throughout the Czech Republic. A total of 2,500 visitors was recorded on the day.
The Saturday saw more than 200 guests gather on the Erzgebirge Ridge – in glorious sunshine and a Force 6 wind – to enjoy Bohemian beer and goulash and listen to jazz provided by the well-known "Bridge Band" from Prague, and to take in the impressive view over the 42MW wind farm. The newly-built wind farm stands in strong contrast to the existing landscape, which is scarred by the results of open-cast mining and the smoking chimneys of the coal-fired power stations in the Chomutov and Kadan area.
The opening ceremony began with the showing of an image film on the history of the development of the wind farm in Kryštofovy Hamry and the operating company, ecoenerg Windkraft GmbH & Co. KG, joining the Czech wind energy association; the initiators, Dr. Rainer Sack and Standa Buchta, then made a speech looking back proudly over what had been achieved: "Today marks the achievement of a goal towards which we have striven for years with the utmost zeal. It has been achieved by a strong team, without whom this project would not have been possible. We are delighted that the development work we carried out here has borne fruit and will bring in tangible revenues in the future."
From 11 am–4 pm, the interested public had the opportunity to find out about the largest wind farm in the Czech Republic as well as about the energy provision of the future. Wind energy experts from eab answered visitors' questions on the spot and gave them the opportunity to see inside a wind turbine generator, with a view to possibly convincing critics of the advantages of using renewable energy. The majority of the population has, however, accepted the "one-legged giants", as they are nick-named, as part of their environment and of a modern landscape, recognising that they represent a good alternative to traditional power sources.
The wind farm makes a modest but significant contribution to implementing the Kyoto Agreement in the Czech Republic. With its annual net energy production standing at 102,000,000kWh, the 21 wind turbines can supply all private households in the town of Chomutov with clean energy. Operating the renewable energy power station also saves around 70,000t of CO2 emissions every year.
The wind farm, with its 21 Enercon E82 turbines, each with 2 megawatt nominal output and 78m hub height, is situated on the Erzgebirge Ridge at a height of about 850m; it feeds the energy it produces via an indoor substation into the network of the regional energy supply company, CEZ Distribuce. What is so far the largest wind farm in the Czech Republic has been developed and implemented by the Saxon company eab as part of a German-Czech collaboration. The system is managed by HELIOTEC Betriebs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH in Freiberg.
Building commenced in 2006 after five years of planning, and the wind farm was able to begin trial operations in January 2008. In December 2008, the building authorities in Vejprty awarded the official operating licence to the operating company ecoenerg Windkraft GmbH & Co. KG, who had been allocated an investment volume of 58 million euro by the Sächsische Landesbank/LBBW for the implementation of the project. This is the largest project on international soil ever implemented within the eab group of companies, in the history of the company.