Daimler to Use Wind Energy at German Facilities

Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit plans to use electricity generated from wind farms at three of its factories in Germany starting in 2021.

Generated by six nearby wind farms, the power will be used at the carmaker’s vehicle assembly plant in Bremen and battery plants in Kamenz and Stuttgart. The Bremen site plans to ramp up production of the all-new EQC electric crossover vehicle next year.

The community-owned wind farms have 31 turbines that currently generate a combined 74 GWh of energy per year. Subsides for the sites, which were commissioned between 1999 and 2001, expire over the next several years.

The wind farms will supply the Mercedes plants with 33.1 million kWh of energy in 2021. Annual output will increase to 74 million kWh from 2022 to 2024.

The program will be managed by Norway’s Statkraft AS and Germany’s Enovos Energie GmbH. Mercedes expects all eight of its manufacturing facilities in Germany to derive 100% of their purchased power—meeting 75% of their requirements—from carbon neutral sources by 2022.