Wind energy in Austria: ENERCON’s wind turbines plant

On Friday (9 March), a groundbreaking ceremony officially launched the construction work of ENERCON’s new concrete factory in Zurndorf (Burgenland), Austria. The plant is ENERCON’s first production site in Austria and is scheduled to start producing precast concrete tower segments for wind energy projects in the entire republic as well as Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Poland and Southern Germany by the end of this year.

Due to the high demand for precast towers in the region, the Aurich-based wind turbine manufacturer decided to set up new concrete tower production facilities closer to the customers. Another reason for this move is the longstanding business relationship with the Burgenland power supplier, BEWAG, which has been very fruitful. Both companies are avid promoters of onshore wind energy and have set ambitious goals for the near future. Burgenland is already a pioneer in the field of renewable energies. Under the direction of Hans Niessl, Burgenland’s governor, the province has not only set an ambitious objective of covering its entire energy demand with renewable energies by the year 2013, but also wants to develop the use of environmentally friendly wind power so that they can export green energy to adjacent provinces and possibly to neighbouring states. ENERCON is a major partner in this endeavour.

The approx. 17000-square-metre tower factory will be made up of two side-by-side production areas and is expected to process up to 200,000 tons of concrete annually. This comes to a production capacity of ca. 200 precast concrete towers per year. With the construction of the new plant, ENERCON expects to create up to 200 new jobs depending on the market situation. The investment sum for this project lies within the mid-double-digit million euro range. For ENERCON, the investment in Austria is yet another building block in is sustainable growth strategy.

www.enercon.de