Germany's first generation of commercial wind turbines was installed in the 1990s — small machines of 100 to 500 kilowatts that stood 40 to 60 metres tall and were considered remarkable at the time. By the early 2020s, these turbines had reached end of life, and Germany faced a decision about the land they occupied: decommission and restore, or repower with modern equipment that could multiply output dramatically on the same footprint.
Repowering won. Germany's repowering programme, supported by streamlined permitting that waives the full environmental impact assessment requirement for like-for-like site replacements, has replaced thousands of first-generation turbines with modern machines generating 6 to 8 megawatts each — 60 to 80 times the output of the original equipment on the same land, using the same grid connections, often the same access roads, and in many cases the same concrete foundations with structural reinforcement.
The productivity multiplier is extraordinary. A site that previously generated 600 megawatt-hours per year from three 100-kilowatt turbines now generates 40,000 megawatt-hours from a single 6-megawatt replacement. The land use is identical. The noise profile is similar or lower due to modern blade aerodynamics. The visual impact is similar — one taller turbine instead of three shorter ones. The electricity output is 67 times higher.
Germany's wind industry is not just growing by adding new sites. It is rebuilding itself on the sites it already has, multiplying output without multiplying footprint.
Source: German Wind Energy Association (BWE) & Bundesnetzagentur, 2024
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