The construction of wind turbines on the Soonwald Ridge was proposed as early as the 2000s. The communities Ellern, Rheinböllen and Seibersbach declared the Soonwald Ridge as a wind development area. In May 2010, a study was ordered for the proposed wind turbine locations in Seibersbach and Dörrebach. One turbine of type ENERCON E-101 was already under construction at the time, which was eventually completed as well. The Wind Farm was planned by the company juwi in
Wörrstadt. Juwi was also developing a range of other parks in the vicinity of other European countries. The owners and operators are juwi and the
Austrian company
Verbund AG, which means Austria owns 51% of the Wind Farm. Both companies operate the Wind Farm together, with the estate portfolio, circa 2012, comprising 21 wind turbines in the area, which also include the Wind Farms of Seibersbach-Hochsteinchen and Seibersbach/Dörrebach. The Construction of 8 wind turbine facilities on Wind Farm Ellern began on March 2nd, 2012. At the time, the approvals for the construction had not yet been submitted. The County Administration of
Simmern gave an emergency approval for the clearance of forested lands to the company juwi. The approval was given due to the wildcats living by the Soonwald, so they wouldn’t disturb them from rearing their offspring. The actual start of construction for the wind turbine facilities after approval was given began in May. The plan was initially to finalize all eight turbines by the end of the year. The precast concrete components of the towers were transported from the Enercon-Werk in
Magdeburg with a ship from Trier. Then from there by truck along
Highway 50, carried through
Argenthal along the road L-242 to the forest Construction Zones. The two-tier rotor blades, engines, and generators were supplied directly from the plant manufacturer Enercon. On August 28th, 2012, the first of the five wind turbine facilities of type ENERCON E-126 was successfully set up, with a massive 150 ton engine and reaching ~443 ft (135 m) high. The first ENERCON E-136 wind turbine went into operation on October 29th, 2012 and by midway through December, all five turbines were online. The three wind turbines of type ENERCON E-101 were constructed identically with three wind turbines on the Seibersbach-Hochsteinchen farm and five on Wind Farm Seibersbach/Dörrebach. All of them were constructed by the middle of 2013, and the 3 parks officially opened alongside a ceremony held on September 17th, 2013.
Criticism of the Site Selection Criticism of the site selection was targeted towards everyone on the
Bürgerinitiative Soonwald e.V, the
NABU, the
BUND, and the
Bürgerinitiative Gegenwind Soonwald e.V. They criticized all of them for their opinions toward the lack of conservation measures, especially for the wildlife on the construction site. The wind turbines release
high-frequency turbulence that compromises the sight of all 14
bat species living in the Soonwald. Their
extinction would also threaten the
wildcats living in the Soonwald. Further criticism is of the organization's premature beginning of clearing the forest without a proper approval permit. Juwi denies the accusations. The wind farm is associated with energy transition and conservation, juwi stated on the farm's official website. Juwi would also later relocate the spruce
monoculture of the cleared land onto another site via mixed forest substitution and thereby create new habitats for the bats. == Technical Structure ==