VEW is now part of Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg

Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg (EWF) takes over the shares of the municipal Verbands-Energie-Werk Gesellschaft für Erneuerbare Energien mbH, VEW for short. It thus becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of EWF. With this step, EWF and VEW want to further promote the urgently needed expansion of renewable energies. Jürgen van der Horst, Chairman of the EWF Supervisory Board, and Frank Benz, Managing Director of EWF, emphasise that the many upcoming projects can be managed and implemented more easily under one roof.

Climate-neutral district as a goal
"In order to achieve our common goal of a largely climate-neutral district, we will further intensify our efforts here," says Jürgen van der Horst. "Therefore, it is a right and important step that we are now bringing VEW under the EWF umbrella together with our co-partners Thüga and EAM." This not only simplifies the structures, but also bundles existing resources. The corresponding resolutions have already been passed by the responsible bodies, the EWF supervisory board and the Zweckverband Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg.

For EAM, too, the pooling of resources represents a great opportunity. "We all need to look ahead and work together towards a sustainable energy future," explains EAM Managing Director Hans-Hinrich Schriever. "We have the right tools for the regional energy transition - it just needs to be possible to use them much more quickly and efficiently. Through the stronger integration of EWF and VEW, we will be able to significantly increase the pace of expansion of renewable energies in the district."

Ralf Winter, authorised signatory at Thüga AG from Munich, adds: "In our view, the integration of VEW is the next necessary step in the development of EWF into a regional energy supplier. Generation from renewable sources, grid operation, energy management services and sales will thus be bundled in one company. This will result in considerable organisational and economic advantages for EWF in the overall process."

Many projects in the field of renewable energies
VEW was founded in 2011 - with the aim of implementing renewable energy projects alone or together with partners and operating them in the long term, primarily wind farms, solar or hydropower plants. For the construction and operation, subsidiaries are usually founded in the respective municipality where the project is located in order to keep the value creation of the business operations as far as possible in the region where the project is realised. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving fossil energy resources through the generation and storage of renewable energy are always the primary goal - in accordance with the principles of sustainability and economic efficiency.

Communication and cooperation have always been and will continue to be important factors. "The acceptance of wind energy, photovoltaics and hydropower depends largely on how projects are explained and implemented," explains Frank Benz. "We, i.e. EWF and its subsidiary VEW, find it easier to talk to people and to address things in a simple and understandable way. This is exactly the way we achieve climate neutrality. This principle continues to apply." Although VEW, as a subsidiary, slips under the EWF umbrella, the projects and plans remain in place in the new organisational structure. This means that the company can seamlessly continue its previous work.

"Using the tailwind"
"We have been able to master the previous projects well with a small team of six colleagues and are proud of what we have achieved so far," emphasises Stefan Kieweg, Managing Director of VEW. "Support for renewable energies is growing. We are now making faster progress on many of our projects. If we increase the output of our plants as planned, the EWF umbrella will give us the strong structures we need to do so in future. Now we have to use this tailwind."

Mutual benefit for both sides
With its subsidiary VEW, EWF can contribute more directly to accelerating the expansion of renewable energies. Under the strong umbrella of a domestic energy supplier, EWF bundles all the tasks required for a successful energy and heat turnaround: The modernisation of the grids, the digitalisation of many processes, the offer of suitable energy solutions at the customer's premises and the on-site generation of renewable electricity by VEW.

Wind farms, photovoltaic and hydropower plants
VEW has already implemented four wind farms with a capacity of almost 42 megawatts (MW) in recent years. Six years ago, VEW commissioned the wind farm in Gemünden with a total of seven wind turbines (WT) and a nominal output of 16.8 megawatts (MW). The other three wind farms are located near Helsen (2 WT, 5.4 MW), Gembeck (5 WT, 2.5 MW) and Brilon (5 WT, 17.25 MW). Within the next two years, the wind farms Halsberg near Bad Arolsen-Bühle (4 WT, 24 MW) and the wind farm Marke near Korbach (4 WT, 22.8 MW) are to be connected to the grid. With the completion of these two projects, VEW will more than double its installed capacity (almost 90 MW) by 2025. With a total of three more planned wind farm sites at Twistenberg, Mühlenberg and Rhoder Forst, as well as additional wind turbines in Gemünden and Gembeck, VEW plans to expand its portfolio by up to 28 wind turbines.

When it comes to the expansion of renewable energies, the company does not limit itself to the construction of wind farms. In Korbach, VEW commissioned an open-space photovoltaic plant four years ago. This was built on the former landfill site "Im Alten Felde". Another project is to be implemented in Flechtdorf. As far as the use of hydropower is concerned, the available sites in the region have been largely exhausted. VEW built a new type of residual water power plant at the Ederwehr in Fritzlar between 2015 and 2016. This can also generate electricity with smaller amounts of water, and it also protects the fish population.