German utility RWE has become the sole owner of a 1.6 GW cluster of offshore wind farms in the German North Sea by buying out its Canadian partner Northland Power in a deal worth around €35m ($37.5m).
RWE has taken over Northland Power’s 49% shareholding in the Nordseecluster, consisting of four sites located north of the island of Juist.
The Nordseecluster will be located close to the existing 332 MW Nordsee One wind farm, which RWE and Northland Power co-developed and continue to operate jointly. The project will be constructed in two phases. Two wind farms with a combined capacity of 660 MW are currently in the permit application phase. Turbine installation at sea is expected to start in 2026, with commercial operations starting in early 2027.
Two further wind farms for the second phase will add an additional 900 MW of capacity, with commercial operation expected to start in early 2029. For both sites, RWE will most likely bid and exercise their step-in rights in this year’s German offshore wind auctions as it did in 2021 for the first phase of the project.
Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind, said: “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. When the Nordseecluster becomes operational in 2027 and 2029, we will be supporting the decarbonisation drive in our home market of Germany by generating around six terawatt hours of green electricity per year. And we are going for even more as we plan to take part in the large German offshore wind auctions in summer this year.”
