Amazon and Ørsted Sign Largest Offshore Wind Corporate Power Purchase Agreement in Europe

Amazon has signed a ten-year corporate power purchase agreement with Ørsted to offtake the output of 250 MW from Ørsted’s planned 900 MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in Germany.

This CPPA will contribute to Amazon’s target of being 100 per cent renewable by 2030 as part of the company’s goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

“We applaud Amazon’s leadership in corporate renewable energy investments which helps drive the green energy transformation forward,” Rasmus Errboe, Senior Vice President, Head of Region Continental Europe at Ørsted Offshore and responsible for Corporate PPAs, said.

”This agreement shows that Ørsted is well placed to help corporations with green ambitions act on the global climate challenge. The CPPA with Amazon on Borkum Riffgrund 3 will drive this breakthrough zero-subsidy project a step closer towards realization, where it will supply large amounts of clean electricity for Germany’s green transition. Germany remains an attractive market for Ørsted with its recent decision to have 40GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2040.”

This is Ørsted’s second CPPA with Amazon, following the 2016 agreement on the 253 MW Amazon Onshore Wind Farm Texas in Scurry County, Texas.

“We are proud to work with Ørsted on Amazon’s first offshore wind CPPA, Europe’s largest with 250MW of renewable energy,” said Nat Sahlstrom, Director, Amazon Energy.

“The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm will help toward our goal of powering our operations with 100 percent renewable energy and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.”

With this agreement with Amazon, Ørsted has over the past twelve months signed CPPAs for an accumulated capacity of 1,301 MW across its global offshore wind portfolio.

Borkum Riffgrund 3 – Zero-Subsidy Wind Farm

Located in the German North Sea, adjacent to Ørsted’s existing offshore wind farms Borkum Riffgrund 1 and Borkum Riffgrund 2, Borkum Riffgrund 3 is expected to become operational in 2025.

Ørsted plans to reach a final investment decision on the project by the end of 2021.

The wind farm will be built and operated without subsidies. This is made possible by a set of cost drivers including the installation of the next-generation wind turbine technology, very good site conditions and high wind speeds, grid connection costs not being part of the project, plus the potential for stabilising revenues through corporate power purchase agreements like the 250 MW CPPA with Amazon, Ørsted said.

Borkum Riffgrund 3 comprises three offshore wind projects which were originally awarded to Ørsted in auctions in 2017 and 2018.

The three projects were renamed in September 2019 and will be built as one joint project under the name of Borkum Riffgrund 3.

In December 2019, Ørsted signed a 10-year corporate power purchase agreement with Covestro under which this supplier of high-performance polymer materials will buy the output of 100 MW from Borkum Riffgrund 3.