RWE Clean Energy, Vattenfall, and Waterkant Energy emerged as winners of the offshore wind tenders in an auction conducted by the Bundesnetzagentur, a German federal network agency. As per the notification, the projects are worth $862.2 million and comprise four wind farms aggregating 1.8 GW in the North Sea of Germany. The federal maritime and hydrographic agency, Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), pre-examined the locations for the wind farms, which will be situated at four different locations in the North Sea region.
RWE’s Nordseecluster B has secured contracts for sites N-3.5 and N-3.6 with a capacity of 420 MW and 480 MW, respectively. It will develop two wind farms with a total capacity of 900 MW. The two wind farms are scheduled to commence operations in 2029. RWE also secured a provisional project with a capacity of 630 MW to be developed at the N-6.6 site. The project is located 50 km north-west of the Nordseecluster. Additionally, Vattenfall secured step-in rights along with the option of joining the bid for the development of the project. The deadline to exercise rights is September 14, 2023. While Waterkant Energy has secured the contract for site N-6.7. This site has no entry rights.
The projects are scheduled to be commissioned in 2028. Furthermore, the total tender value is required to be paid to the transmission system operator in annual installments for a period of 20 years.
REGlobal’s Views: This auction comes soon after the massive 7 GW auction conducted last month in which two oil majors, BP and TotalEnergies, had emerged as winners. Germany has a strong potential for development of offshore wind capacity and these two auctions will significantly help the country to capitalise this potential.
