RWE and Northland Power team up for gigawatt-scale offshore wind cluster in Germany
German energy firm RWE and Canada’s Northland Power have joined forces to co-develop a 1.3 GW cluster of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea.
The partners have established a joint venture structure through which they plan to jointly develop and construct three wind farms, which are all expected to start commercial operation between 2026 and 2028. RWE Renewables will hold 51% and Northland Power will hold 49% of the shares in the new joint venture.
“Germany has set itself ambitious climate targets, thereby establishing a significant growth potential for renewable energies. Offshore wind power plays a central role in this, and is indispensable for supporting the decarbonisation of industry in particular. RWE is making its contribution to this and is significantly stepping up the pace here. This includes the collaborative delivery of the 1.3 GW offshore cluster with Northland Power, through which we can achieve considerable synergies to deploy at our new wind farms, while at the same time actively supporting the energy transition in our home market Germany,” said Sven Utermöhlen, CEO Wind Offshore, RWE Renewables.
“The formation of the cluster aligns with our offshore wind ambitions and strategy of growing our position as a global leader in offshore wind,” added Mike Crawley, president and CEO of Northland Power. This cluster will provide us with significant size and scale and allows us to support the decarbonisation efforts in Germany.”
The new offshore wind cluster includes a total of three offshore wind leases, which are located north of the island of Juist. One offshore site (N-3.8) with a capacity of 433 MW was already secured by the partners in the latest German offshore wind auction. The other two leases will add a further 900 MW of capacity and are expected to be auctioned in 2023. For both sites, the joint venture holds step-in rights.
