The potential of wind turbines
What seems paradoxical at first glance is the result of the rapid technical progress of the last 20 years: modern wind turbines are more efficient than ever before. They now supply electricity for entire regions on a smaller area, with fewer turbines and significantly more power. Even regions with comparatively few new wind turbines can cover a large part of their electricity requirements.
Why is that?
Today, a single modern wind turbine replaces around three older turbines. Rotor diameters and hub heights have almost tripled since the year 2000. As a result, wind can now also be used efficiently in locations that were previously considered unsuitable. The average output and yield per turbine are constantly increasing.
At the same time, however, expansion has declined significantly since 2020: Around 7,000 new turbines were installed between 2015 and 2019, compared to only around 3,700 since 2020. Although individual turbines now supply significantly more electricity than before, the lower number of new installations means that the total additional energy generated is lower than in the years of strong expansion. Modern wind turbines are more powerful than ever, but the amount of additional electricity produced still depends heavily on how many new turbines are actually built.
For whom is this data valuable?
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For telecommunications companies, wind turbines are both a risk and an opportunity. Precise location data and information on hub height and rotor diameter are necessary to avoid signal interference from rotor blades. At the same time, wind turbines offer attractive locations for mobile radio and radio relay antennas thanks to their height. Data from the database, such as commissioning date, turbine type, output and technical characteristics, support the selection of suitable sites. This allows existing infrastructures to be efficiently combined to expand 5G coverage, IoT applications and rural network coverage - without having to erect additional masts. The interface between the energy and telecommunications sectors will therefore become even more important in the coming years.
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It helps municipal utilities and operators to better assess potential sites and make investment decisions. Companies that rely on a regional supply of renewable energy (e.g. manufacturing industry) also benefit from complete knowledge of the exact locations of wind turbines. Energy suppliers and municipal utilities also use them to market regionally generated green electricity.
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Planning & administration: Energy suppliers, local authorities, the real estate industry and planning offices that evaluate regional expansion can use the site evaluation to promote a sustainable energy supply.
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Investors & financiers : With the growth of wind power, the market dynamics are increasing - investors therefore need reliable data. Information from the Nexiga database such as installed capacity, net power fed into the grid and commissioning date provide direct indications of yield, profitability and remaining lifetime. Supplemented by location data, manufacturer information and technical features, well-founded analyses and realistic yield forecasts can be created. Portfolio comparisons by project, country or region are thus possible. It is also possible to clearly show how many households a wind turbine supplies with energy.
The Nexiga data as of June 2025 comprises a total of 36,953 wind turbines - including planned turbines that are not yet in operation; 31,571 are currently already connected to the grid and the data is updated quarterly.
Detailed information is available for each wind turbine, such as the name of the turbine, municipality code, X/Y coordinates, parcel number, gross and net rated power in kW, hub height and rotor diameter in mm, name of the operator and commissioning or planned commissioning date and much more.
Regional differences
Our map (PDF) shows the share of wind energy in the electricity demand of private households at district level. In southern Germany, the share is less than 20% in many of the districts, while in the north the households of entire federal states are gradually being covered by wind power. In contrast, there are no wind turbines in individual districts such as Mannheim, Potsdam or Stuttgart, which are shaded gray on the map.
North (e.g. Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony): In many districts, the electricity requirements of private households are covered completely or even more than 100 % by wind power.
South (e.g. Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg): share often below 20 %. Obstacles are lower wind speeds and stricter requirements such as the "H10 regulation".
These regional differences are no coincidence: while large areas were developed for wind power early on in the windy north, expansion in the south is often hampered by lower wind speeds and stricter requirements such as the Bavarian "H10 regulation". These factors mean that some districts are already producing more electricity than their households need, while other districts are still lagging far behind in this respect.
The data makes it clear that not only more, but above all better wind turbines will advance the energy transition. Technological progress will make it possible to generate more electricity with fewer turbines and thus supply more households. The Nexiga database shows how many households this means in detail and how many wind turbines there are throughout Germany.
