Wind power has become a vital source of renewable energy, and the development of wind farms is gaining momentum worldwide. However, the construction of wind farms on newly recultivated areas is a challenging task due to the settling time required for the young soils to stabilize. In general, newly recultivated areas are built on after up to 15 years, making it difficult to develop wind farms in a timely manner. But now, a joint research project between Ruhr University Bochum, engineering office Jörss-Blunck-Ordemann (JBO), and RWE is investigating the possibility of building wind farms on former opencast mining sites sooner than ever before.
The experts are conducting their research at the Inden opencast mine, where they will select the most complex subsoil for the project. They will then begin the field test by piling up gravel and sand on a circular area with the same radius as a wind turbine. The earth masses will weigh as much as a wind turbine, including its foundation. Measuring devices in the soil will record any geomechanical changes, and computer calculations will be carried out based on the data from the field tests and accompanying geotechnical laboratory investigations. The models will not only simulate the settlement of the subsoil under the dead weight of the wind turbine but also the effect of wind loads on the ground around the turbine.
Christian Vogt, who is responsible for developing wind farms at RWE, expressed his enthusiasm for the project, saying, “Together, we want to push ahead with the expansion of wind power and also use more difficult locations for this purpose. We are thus very pleased that the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection is supporting our project, thereby helping to examine to what extent and under what conditions the use of freshly recultivated areas is possible. In the Rhenish mining area alone, we want to build 500 megawatts of additional renewable capacities by 2030 to advance the energy transition.”
Torsten Wichtmann, Professor of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering, and Environmental Geotechnics at Ruhr University Bochum, expressed his confidence in the project, saying, “We are confident that we can reliably assess the suitability of sites on freshly recultivated areas using computer simulations, which we want to confirm using the test fill in Inden. This innovative project combines our many years of expertise on wind turbine foundations and soil mechanics issues in the recultivation of former opencast mines.”
The project is supported by the “Innovations for the energy turnaround” project group, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. The research project in the Inden opencast mine is being supported with 683.345 euros, with a significant portion of the funding going to Ruhr University Bochum. This is the first project to systematically investigate the suitability of freshly filled-in opencast mining areas, and the findings could have far-reaching implications for the development of wind farms in the future.
