There’s a small town in Germany called Dardesheim, that relies almost entirely on renewable sources for its energy needs. The town’s goal is to use 100% renewable power, and become known as German’s “Town of Renewable Energies”. Dardesheim already has some huge wind turbines in place, and many solar roofs installed. Last year they installed an amazing 62 megawatts of wind power, including one 6 megawatt turbine, the E112.
Paul Gipe writes in Wind Works:
The E112 alone is expected to produce from 12 to 15 million kWh per year, enough to meet the electrical needs of 4,000 households in this region of Germany. Altogether, the wind turbines will generate from 120 to 130 million kWh annually, enough to meet the needs of nearly all the 80,000 residents of the county. And if the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow they don’t need a large battery storage they fire up a biomass plant to generate the electricity from plant residues, wood pellets and manure.
This isn’t the first that the villages have been exposed to renewable energy. Four pioneering wind turbines were installed in the mid-1990s, collectively producing one million kWh per year. The more extensive project has been in the works since then.
They also installed nine different solar PV plants: five private projects totaling 170 kW, and four projects at the Druiberg wind plant totaling 210 kW. During their first year of operation the combined 380 kW of solar PV generated nearly 250,000 kWh, about one-third of the Dardesheim’s domestic electricity consumption.
The town of Dardesheim also wants to attract tourists who are interested in renewable energy. They’ve built a renewable energy information center (on a former anti-ballistic missile radar station), and this year they also expect to install a large wind turbine fitted out with a observation platform.
For more information on Dardesheim, see this Wind Works article.
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- The Tallest Wind Turbines In The U.S. Installed In Texas
- Rock Port: First U.S. City To Run On 100% Wind Power
- The Queen Buys The World’s Largest Wind Turbine: 7.5 Megawatts
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Might I add that there already is a town that size that runs entirely on renewable energy: http://www.bioenergiedorf.de/contenido/cms/front_content.php?idcat=13&changelang=6
Great !!!!!
Excellent news. Really
That’s fantastic. Why can’t more towns and cities do that?
I think that 100% efficiency is not impossible for any town or city in the world. The world can learn from Dardesheim, Germany.
http://www.hugg.ca
I think that 100% efficiency is not impossible for any town or city in the world. The world can learn from Dardesheim, Germany.
http://www.hugg.ca
It is Marvelous. What they are doing makes me very happy and optimistic that one day I too will be able to install solar pannels on my house and a wind turbine in my backyard. We do little we can by using efficient lightbulbs(they have a short lifespan and are expensive)and we are a poor country. But hope is glowing.
Keep on the environmental frendly activity and good luck.
Catalin Hustea
NOW WE JUST HAVE TO RECYLE THOSE FLOURECENT LIGHT BULPS THAT THE US ARE INTRODUCING
THEY CONTAIN MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MERCURY
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100 % Erneuerbare scheinen mir angesichts der gegebenen Möglichkeiten nicht gerade ambitioniert. Rechnet man die Windkraft und Stirling-Technik dazu, kommt man leicht auf über 500 % Stromerzeugung über den eigenen Bedarf hinaus
I would like to see studies on how long it will take them to recoup their investment/how much per capita they have spent etc etc.
By carefully tailoring lifestyle to availability to provide power, by Solar, Wind, Wave, Tidal, Hydro and geo-thermal systems, we can all survive in a much cleaner world. Include communal bio-gassing of sewage, and offal, and careful recycling and disposal of garbage we end up in an almost disease free, low cost per capita, world. Going deeper into the Socialist aspects of this new technology, we can collectively invest in Wind Turbine and Solar installations, super-insulated, passive solar oriented, heated/cooled homes of reasonable dimension, and do even better at the survival game! Such is not the interest of the corporate living, capitalistic, “American Dream”, folks, They insist that by taking clever, or even dishonest advantage of the environment and their fellow man they can excel and live “Higher on the Hog” than others and get away with this all the time! Sadly many other Americans suffer tremendously and needlessly due to this sick, Unchristian, anti-social, anti socialist, unjewish, selfish and anti-environmental attitude! When they change, the world will shift, and a fairer share might be available to all! For now we suffer their huge weight on our backs, and hope lies in the progress made in Germany! The Good News! The Chinese now own the greedy Americans, lock, stock, and barrel, and have recently refused to finance them with trillion dollar loans, and are by trade, driving the American Dollar into the ground! a lesson is being taught here! a social one if not a socialist one, and economically, not by death and destruction! Formidable and very intelligent “Mother China” is taking care of her chicks, even the bad teenage girl America! and she is growing up because of this! More power to brother Germany, may the “Force” be kind to you always!
finley the U.S. may be caching up.