Kammerberg celebrates ten years of citizens' wind turbines: A success for climate protection!

Kammerberg celebrates ten years of citizens' wind turbines: A success for climate protection!

The city of Kammerberg celebrated a special occasion on November 3, 2025: The citizen wind turbine, operated by the Bürger Energie Genossenschaft Freisinger Land (BEG-FS), could look back on a successful decade. Over the last ten years, the wind turbine has generated an impressive 71 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, which means enough energy for around 2,000 households. Through this contribution to climate protection, 51,500 tons of CO₂ were avoided, which benefits the environment and at the same time supports the desired energy transition.

What makes the BEG-FS so special? Membership has increased from 375 to 2,525 since 2015 – a remarkable 6.7x growth. This not only shows the interest in renewable energies, but also the trust citizens have in the cooperative. As early as 2015, 250 members made it possible to finance the wind turbine through subordinated loans of 1.5 million euros. A really good deal, as the numbers show!

Successful figures and future prospects

The wind turbine generated an average of 16.7 percent more yield than originally forecast. It has proven to be extremely reliable, with availability of over 97 percent in nine out of ten years—except in 2020, which was slowed down by an insulation failure. What is particularly pleasing is that curtailments by the network operator are rare; After all, Upper Bavaria doesn't exactly produce a lot of wind power.

Wind power is particularly active in the winter months, from December to March - a full 47 percent of generation comes from this time. In addition, 58 percent of electricity is produced at night, when the wind turbines often achieve peak performance.

An exciting innovation for wind power in Bavaria came into force in 2022. The 10H regulation, which previously restricted the expansion of wind power in Bavaria, has been relaxed through exceptions for new projects. The BEG-FS is taking advantage of this opportunity and has already approved two further wind farms: the Jesenwang citizen wind farm and the Hohenkammer citizen wind farm. When it goes into operation at the end of 2027, BEG-FS's wind power generation will increase to 72.5 million kWh per year—a welcome step towards a sustainable energy future.

A look at the energy transition

The progress in Germany shows how important the expansion of renewable energies is. 22.4 percent of gross final energy consumption was covered by renewable energies in 2024, which represents an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous year. According to the Federal Environment Agency, 41 percent of final energy consumption should be covered by renewable energies by 2030. This includes wind power, which contributes 27 percent to the energy supply and thus plays a key role for the future.

In 2024, 284 billion kWh of electricity was generated from renewable sources, an increase of 3 percent compared to the previous year. Of this amount, the largest share, namely 138.9 billion kWh, came from wind energy. This once again underlines the importance of wind power for the energy transition in Germany.

The successful outcome of the citizen wind turbine in Kammerberg is not only a local success story, but also reflects the progress being made in renewable energy production across the country. It remains exciting to see how this development will continue to unfold.

Mercury reports on the significant progress of the citizen wind turbine while the Federal Environment Agency provides comprehensive figures on renewable energies in Germany. For medical topics relating to Menière's disease, the Mayo Clinic valuable information on diagnosis and treatment.