VSB, a German renewables developer, has obtained $223m (€211m) in project financing from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank (DZ Bank) to repower the Elster wind farm.

Of the €211m loan, €175m has been secured on a long-term basis with a maturity of more than 20 years.

Located in the towns of Zahna-Elster and Jessen in the Wittenberg district in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the original Elster wind farm began operations in 2000 and had a total capacity of 30MW.

The repowering will now see 50 of its outdated wind turbines replaced with 16 new and more efficient ones.

Consequently, less than two-thirds of the original area allocated for the wind farm will be used.

The wind farm will now feature 16 Siemens Gamesa’s SG 6.6-155 wind turbines, each with 6.6MW of generating capacity.

The repowered wind farm will have a total capacity of 105.6MW. Its commissioning is expected to take place in the first half of 2025.

The wind farm will generate 235 gigawatt-hours of clean energy annually, sufficient to power 67,000 households. The project will also help to avoid 180,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

VSB finance head Lucas Förschner stated: “We are proud to have found in LBBW and DZ BANK two trustworthy and highly professional partners to help us finance this major project. We look forward to implementing the project together.”

LBBW sustainable energy finance head Jens Heil stated: “The scale of this project and the vision demonstrated by VSB are in line with our principles of promoting sustainable solutions for the future and implementing them together with our customers. It is important for us to be a part of this journey of transformation.”

VSB secured permits for the wind farm’s repowering in February 2023. Ground-breaking on the project took place in May and the dismantling of the old turbines was completed in July.