Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlengesellschaft has presented plans for the Breunsdorf wind farm project in the United Schleenhain opencast mine to the city and local councils of Groitzsch and Neukieritzsch.

The wind farm will be built on a total area of ??275 hectares on the inner dump of the United Schleenhain opencast mine, south of the new B176 between Neukieritzsch and Groitzsch.

The plans allow for 17 wind turbines of the 6MW class with a capacity of 102MW and an annual electricity generation of around 230GWh is expected to deliver electricity from 2024.

The mining company is initiating the transformation into a modern energy service provider based on renewable energies in the Central German region.

Commercial director Dr Kai Steinbach said: "We are on our way with a growing share of renewable energies in our portfolio.

"The Breunsdorf wind farm is an important milestone in this regard. But that's just a start.

"Our future lies in the use and refinement of green electricity. The way to do this is through the production of hydrogen."

The prerequisite for the project, with an investment sum of around €100m, was the designation of the area on the inner dump of the United Schleenhain opencast mine as a wind priority and suitable area.

MIBRAG is currently preparing the BImSchG application.

After the approval has been granted, the first infrastructure measures are to begin at the beginning of 2023.

MIBRAG has already carried out the faunistic investigations required for the immission control approval procedure on the project area.

The Breunsdorf wind farm is part of the MIBRAG future project “Renewal of MIBRAG in the Revier” (EMIR).

According to the plans of the mining company, this should become an important building block for the future direction of the company.