Last Friday WIND-projekt welcomed again high-ranking guests in Grapzow. The Flemish Minister of Energy, Bart Tommelein, visited with a delegation the existing energy storage facility and associated wind farm. Furthermore, the directors of the 50 Hertz GmbH Boris Schucht and Dr. Frank Golletz, as well as Dr. Patrick Graichen (AGORA Energiewende) were present. Belgium would like to expand its wind energy generation and for this reason the transmission network operator 50 Hertz organized such a visit in Germany. The Minister was able to gain an actual overview of the state of the storage technologies in the renewable energies sector and discuss in personal talks with the CEO Carlo Schmidt and other experts about future and necessary steps on the way to the implementation of the energy targets. As a special feature of the day, WIND-projekt organized an ascent of an Enercon E-126 for the guests and they were able to convince themselves directly of the productivity and the enormous dimensions of today’s existing wind turbine generators.

WIND-projekt is again confirmed by this visit in their activities and will continue to promote the expansion of renewable energies and regenerative storage technologies.

On 20 th and 21 st March 2017 the Federal Government organized the third international energy transition conference in cooperation with the Federal Assoctiation for Renewable Energy, the Federal Solar Energy Association, the consulting company eclareon and the German Energy Agency (dena). Numerous international ministers, high-ranking delegations, business and industry representatives from more than 93 countries attended the meeting and discussed about current developments and innovations of the energy policy, as well as new investment opportunities and business models, in order to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Sustainability Goals of Agenda 2030 in a cost-effective manner.

As a marginal program of this event, numerous excursions to showcase projects in Germany were organized this year too.

Today WIND-project received in Grapzow the deputy energy minister of South Africa and the Moroccan Secretary of State of the Ministry of Energy accompanied by representatives of the transmission network operator 50 Hertz. Guests were informed about the state of the art of the existing wind turbines at the bottom of a wind turbine. In addition, the guests were able to get an overview of the existing energy storage site and they discussed with the project engineers about future goals and necessities of energy storage. The delegation was very interested in the projects which are already implemented by WIND-project GmbH and welcomed the enthusiasm for innovation in the sector of regenerative storage technologies.

As part of the ongoing cooperation with universities, especially from M-V, WIND-project welcomed two visiting groups from Wismar and Neubrandenburg at the energy storage facility in Grapzow. The students were practical informed about the energy transition by showing a wind turbine of the manufacturer Enercon with an output of 7.500 kW and also by showing an energy storage system to store fluctuating wind power in the form of hydrogen. Technical questions of the existing turbines and energy storage system were answered as well as landscape planning issues concerning the project.

WIND-project is always very pleased with the existing interest of young people in climate-friendly technologies for energy generation and energy storage and will continue to push ahead the cooperation with the universities.

In the course of the cooperation with the University of Rostock in the project RH2-PTG, WIND-projekt today greeted a group of experts from the University of Rostock and their guests - representatives of the operator of the national Bhutanese water power plants – to discuss the energy supply and the grid stability in the Himalaya kingdom. Run-of-river power plants are the major energy source in Bhutan. The guests were very interested in the energy storage technology and in the direct integration of the wind turbines into the system. The topic grid stability in a changing energy system concerns Germany as well as Bhutan. Both countries need innovative projects to ensure the energy supply of the future, the participants agreed. The planned expansion of the energy storage system to a self-contained start power plant based on 100% renewable energy aroused particular interest. The representatives of WIND-projekt also enjoyed the professional discussion and look forward to further joined meetings.

In the course of a trip to Europe, a delegation of 25 energy experts from India arrived in Grapzow today. The delegation consists of Indian energy industry managers, whose companies are organized in the „Northern Regional Power Committee of India (NRPC)“.
The NRPC unites state authorities as well as grid operators and federal energy companies. The trip takes place in the course of the so called „Capacity Building Programs on the Integration of Renewable Energy Resources (RES) into the Grid for Power Utilities operating in Northern Region”.
The interest focuses on the need and the possibility to integrate larger volumes of fluctuating renewable energies into an existing energy system. The storage activities in Grapzow and their expansion within the RH2-PTG project have aroused the interest of the Indian professionals. For WIND-project, this is further proof of the positive international feedback for the innovational tasks in the fields of net integration, system security and storage, which are
tackled at the technology site Grapzow.