With all land lease agreements in place and proposals to establish wind and solar parks with strong local anchoring, Momentum has secured a place in the race to develop new renewable energy in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality.

April 30, 2024 was the deadline for submitting applications for new renewable energy plants to Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality. Momentum has submitted five applications to the municipality and is now among the developers of wind and solar projects that are in the running for which projects will be taken forward by the city council. With proposals for a total of 8 wind turbines and 400 hectares of solar panels, Momentum looks forward to continuing discussions on how the projects can be anchored locally and the proposed local financial contributions can develop local communities.

Common to the five projects is that they are planned on agricultural land in areas with existing technical facilities. Where wind turbines are planned, Momentum will take down more older wind turbines than are erected, so-called repowering (Fjaldene and Sdr. Vium), and where solar panels are planned, they will be installed in connection with existing wind turbines (Sdr. Bork and Skuldbøl) or as an extension of an existing solar panel system (Kjelstrup).

“It has been an exciting process to work so intensively over several months and with several projects in a single municipality. We’ve held a series of public meetings and spent a lot of time listening to both neighbors and landowners. We recognize that we are changing the landscape when we install wind turbines and solar cells, and although we have encountered some skepticism, we have also experienced a lot of support to continue. We are very pleased with the good cooperation we have with local farmers who, like us, want to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions by producing green electricity. The vast majority of the land on which we will install wind turbines and solar cells is of low cultivation quality, so we think we are using the right soil,” says Kristian Månsson, Project Development Manager at Momentum.

Especially the citizens close to the proposed plants are in focus for Momentum, because they are the ones who will have to live with the renewable energy in their neighborhood. Citizen involvement has therefore been particularly important in the process leading up to the deadline. Since January, Momentum has held five citizen meetings in Bølling, Grønbjerg, Sdr. Bork, Lyne and Hemmet and has had a lot of dialog with local citizens and landowners in large parts of Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality.

To ensure that the projects add value locally and contribute to the development of local communities, Momentum has planned for significant local ownership of at least 30 percent in all projects. Momentum also wants the energy produced to provide local value. and has therefore reached out to a number of large private companies and all district heating plants in the municipality to explore the possibilities of selling the green power locally. Although the project proposals are at an early stage, 12 local companies and several of the district heating plants have already shown interest in buying electricity from Momentum from the projects that may be realized.

Another tool in the green toolbox is Power-to-X, which Momentum also sees as an opportunity in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality: “In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about Power-to-X as a crucial part of the solution to the climate crisis, which can also provide local benefits. We believe that our approach with modular and flexible solutions is the future of onshore Power-to-X,” says Kristian Månsson.

The next milestone for Momentum is June 24th, where there will be a big citizen meeting in Tarm Sports Center, and where Momentum looks forward to meeting the citizens again.

“In the five town hall meetings we held from January to April, we focused on one project at a time, but in Tarm we have to tackle it all at once. We are very much looking forward to this, as it will give us the chance to both show our projects in context and also talk about our model for local value creation, nature enhancement and biodiversity. Because we don’t just create projects on paper with a ruler, we develop them together with others and have, for example, already discussed our projects with the local branch of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation,” says Kristian Månsson.

After the public meeting on June 24, the municipality and city council will get to work analyzing and selecting the projects that will proceed to environmental assessment and local plan. “We’ve put a lot of work into the projects and think we have five strong proposals for new RE projects in the municipality, and now it’s up to the municipality and the city council. Our projects have all private law agreements in place regarding the use of the land, so we are ready to get started,” says Kristian Månsson.

About Momentum and the projects:

Momentum Energy Group A/S is an international developer, manager and investor in wind and solar energy with headquarters in Roskilde. Momentum was founded by CEO Kim Madsen in 2005 and has in recent years undergone rapid development to become one of the largest and fastest growing owners and managers of mainly wind turbines, but also solar projects in Denmark. In addition to the domestic market, Momentum is also active in Germany, Sweden, England and France.

The projects submitted to Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality as of April 30 are:

1. Solar project at Kjelstrup between Skjern and Borris
2. Repowering wind turbine and solar project in Fjaldene near Grønbjerg
3. Solar project south of Sdr. Bork
4. Repowering wind turbine project between Sdr. Vium and Lyne
5. Solar project in Skuldbøl north of Hemmet

For more information, please contact Andreas Nøhr Vestergaard at anv@momentumgreenenergy.com or phone +45 21 78 67 28.