Mercedes-Benz and energy park developer UKA announced today that they have received permission to start installation of a wind farm at the Mercedes-Benz test track in Papenburg, northern Germany.

At a planned 140 MW, the new project will be one of the most powerful onshore wind farms in Germany, covering approximately 20% of Mercedes-Benz’s annual electricity needs in the country.

The construction of the new wind farm follows the establishment of a goal by Mercedes-Benz in 2023 to achieve an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions from production by 2030, alongside targets to increase renewable energy to account for 70% of overall energy needs at its own production sites by 2030, and to have all production plants globally running on 100% on renewable energy with zero CO2 emissions by 2039.

Joerg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said:

“The wind farm in Papenburg is an important building block of our sustainable business strategy – from an ecological and also an economic perspective. The start of construction impressively illustrates that we are consistently putting our ambitious sustainability goals for the production network into practice and thus achieving a measurable impact.”

According to Mercedes-Benz, the new project will be built on the site of its 800-hectare Papenburg test track, as part of a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with UKA, and will consist of 20 wind turbines by 2027, provided by German manufacturer Nordex, with a total nominal output of 140 MW.

Gernot Gauglitz, Managing Partner of the UKA Group, said:

“I am proud of the fact that we, as owners of the future wind farm, will be supplying Mercedes-Benz AG with electricity for the next 25 years. This project shows that UKA, which generates its own climate-friendly electricity, is an attractive supplier of electricity even to large industrial corporations.”