Gütsch wind farm: repowering and expansion

As the site has good wind conditions, is very well developed and the high alpine facility enjoys broad acceptance, one of the four existing turbines was dismantled and replaced by a new, more powerful wind turbine. In addition, three more wind turbines were added, giving the wind farm the status of "national interest" and enabling it to quadruple its electricity production. A two-stage environmental impact assessment confirmed the environmental compatibility of the repowering and expansion. To this end, various interests such as local recreation in the Nätschen area and the preservation of historic military buildings were coordinated with the wind farm expansion and set out in the cantonal spatial strategies. As the planned wind turbines were only available for a limited time and the time window for the summer field surveys was very short, our interdisciplinary team of wind energy experts and environmental specialists had to adhere to a tight schedule.