RWE Inks Major Power Purchase Agreements with German Industrial Giants

RWE Inks Major Power Purchase Agreements with German Industrial Giants

(IN BRIEF) RWE Supply & Trading has finalized Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with seven prominent German industrial customers, securing the supply of approximately 1,000 gigawatt hours per year of green electricity from its Kaskasi offshore wind farm starting in 2026. The PPAs, spanning ten years, mark a significant step towards meeting high industrial demand for renewable energy. The innovative Kaskasi wind farm, equipped with cutting-edge technology including world-first recyclable rotor blades, is poised to power 400,000 households annually while contributing to RWE’s offshore wind portfolio expansion efforts in Germany.

(PRESS RELEASE) ESSEN, 20-Feb-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — RWE’s Kaskasi offshore wind farm will supply seven major German industrial customers with green electricity from 2026. Corresponding Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) have been signed between RWE Supply & Trading and DHL Group, Ensinger, Evonik, Infraserv Höchst, thyssenkrupp Steel Europe and Vodafone; a first PPA from Kaskasi has already been signed with the retail divisions of the Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland) in spring 2023.

Most of the contracts run for ten years and include either a direct purchase (“as-produced”), a scheduled profile delivery (“as-nominated”) a delivery of constant volumes (“baseload delivery”). The first contract will start in 2026, with further contracts to follow in 2027 and 2028, thus fully allocating the electricity volume available for the PPAs.

RWE’s Kaskasi wind farm is located around 35 kilometres off the coast of Heligoland and has 38 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 342 megawatts. Kaskasi can supply 400,000 households a year with green electricity.

Three of the wind farm’s turbines have the world’s first rotor blades that can be recycled at the end of their life. Thanks to a new type of resin, the materials used can be separated from each other for the first time. Other innovations include special steel collars for some of the foundations, based on an RWE patent, and a concrete ring that expands in the seabed. The aim is to achieve a more stable connection between the seabed and the piles, allowing shorter piles to be used in the future.

The wind farm Kaskasi is part of the Heligoland cluster, which also includes the Amrumbank and Nordsee Ost wind farms, and is scheduled to go into regular operation in spring 2023. In the German North Sea, RWE also has stakes in the Nordsee One and Alpha Ventus 1 and 2 wind farms, as well as the Arkona offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea. This gives RWE an offshore wind portfolio in Germany of around 1.2 gigawatts (RWE share). The company is driving forward the expansion of offshore wind energy off the German coast: RWE is developing the North Sea cluster north of the island of Juist. The four sites have a total capacity of up to 1.6 gigawatts and are scheduled to go into operation in 2027 and 2029 respectively.

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SOURCE: RWE AG