RWE takes investment decision on gigascale German North Sea wind projects
German utility earlier had lined up Danish OEM Vestas for 1.6GW Nordseecluster development
RWE has taken investment decisions for its 1.6GW Nordseecluster offshore wind projects in the German North Sea at around 50 kilometres north of the Island of Juist.
“Our portfolio already includes six offshore wind farms off Germany’s coastlines. The Nordseecluster will add two more. This sends out a good signal for the energy transition in Germany and for RWE,” RWE offshore wind CEO Sven Utermöhlen said.
“With a total capacity of 1.6 gigawatts, these wind farms will generate around 6.5 terawatt hours of green electricity per year.
“This will contribute in particular to the decarbonisation of industry in our home market.”
Customers increasingly include operators of AI data centres, the company added.
The developer plans to implement the cluster in two phases.
RWE is scheduled to start construction on the 660MW Nordseecluster A next year, and intends to connect all of its 44 turbines to the grid by early 2027.
Phase B will add a further 900MW and its 60 turbines are scheduled to start operation from the beginning of 2029 on.
RWE said it won’t have to make any lease payments to Germany’s federal grids agency (BNetzA) for any of the Nordseecluster sites, and due to the size of the cluster expects to achieve synergy effects during construction and operation.