RWE Takes Full Ownership of 1.6 GW German Offshore Wind Project

Business & Finance

May 26, 2023, by Adnan Memija

RWE has decided to strengthen its position in the German offshore market by becoming the sole owner of the 1.6 GW cluster of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea.

Illustration; Kaskasi offshore wind farm; Photo courtesy of RWE

The Nordseecluster, consisting of four sites located north of the Juist island, was formerly co-developed with Canadian company Northland Power, which has now sold its 49 per cent shareholding in the cluster to RWE.

The parties agreed on a purchase price of approximately EUR 35 million.

“Evaluation of the NSC in the current environment is leading to higher expected costs for the project, that are only partially being offset by higher expected revenue offtake. As a result, the project no longer meets Northland’s investment criteria,” said Mike Crawley, President and CEO of Northland.

The sale of the Nordseecluster offshore wind portfolio is not expected to impact Northland’s growth trajectory, said the company, as the firm has a large development pipeline of renewable projects that are expected to deliver material growth in capacity and adjusted EBITDA by 2030.

“Becoming the sole owner of the Nordseecluster aligns with our ambition to further grow our position as a global leader in offshore wind. As it will be Germany’s first gigawatt-scale offshore wind cluster, it will provide us with significant size and scale”, said Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind.

The Nordseecluster will be constructed in two phases, namely Nordseecluster A and B.

Two wind farms (N-3.8 and N-3.7, called Nordseecluster A) with a combined capacity of 660 MW are currently in the permit application phase. For Nordseecluster A, offshore works are expected to start in 2025, with commercial operations starting in early 2027.

The two further wind farms (N-3.6 and N-3.5) of the second phase (Nordseecluster B) are expected to add an additional 900 MW of capacity as of 2029.

For both sites of Nordseecluster B, RWE plans to bid and exercise its step-in rights in the German government’s offshore wind auctions this year.

Preferred suppliers of main components for all four sites have been selected, with Vestas delivering 104 wind turbines with a capacity of 15 MW each.

The foundations, manufactured by Dajin Offshore, will be installed by Van Oord’s next-gen newbuild Boreas which is currently being built by Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard in China.