EnBW Exits US Offshore Wind Market, TotalEnergies Steps In

German energy company EnBW has decided to exit the US offshore wind market and focus its future offshore wind activities on Europe.

The move was prompted by ”successful auctions in the UK and the announcement of bold offshore wind build-out targets in Germany,” EnBW said.

The company’s US entity, EnBW North America, and its assets will be acquired by partner TotalEnergies. EnBW will continue to support TotalEnergies’ US activities in the coming months, the company said.

The news comes only days after Attentive Energy LLC, a joint venture between EnBW and TotalEnergies, secured the second most expensive lease site in the New York Bight seabed lease auction.

EnBW is currently developing the 900 MW He Dreiht wind farm in the German North Sea.

In 2021 and 2022, EnBW was successful in auctions in England/Wales and Scotland where EnBW will develop three offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of approximately six gigawatts.

Furthermore, the newly elected German government just recently announced ambitious build-out targets with an additional 10 GW shall be installed in EnBW’s home market Germany by 2030, the company said.

After establishing their US market presence, EnBW started to develop offshore wind opportunities in both the East and West coasts of the country.

After bidding in the 2018 Massachusetts offshore wind land lease auction, EnBW’s North America team prepared for the New York Bight land lease auction together with partner Total Energies. With this win in the auction, EnBW will sell its US offshore wind activities to partner TotalEnergies and push forward its European assets.

”This grand entrance into offshore wind in the U.S. is a major step toward our goal of reaching 100 GW of renewable electricity generation capacity worldwide by 2030,” said Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.

”This development adds another dimension to our renewable business in the U.S., currently representing 4 GW of solar farms under development. This is the largest renewable energy project TotalEnergies has ever undertaken and we now have a portfolio of over 10 GW of offshore wind projects, a technology in which we aim to be a world leader by leveraging our offshore expertise.”

In addition, TotalEnergies will acquire from EnBW the predevelopment work undertaken for the upcoming auction off the coast of Central California – the Castle Wind project.

”We are pleased to have been able to contribute our offshore expertise and experience to this joint success,” said Michael Class, Senior Vice President Power Generation / Portfolio Development.

”At the same time, now is also the right time for us to realign our offshore activities with focus on the European market. We would like to thank our partner TotalEnergies for the excellent cooperation and congratulate them on this auction success. We will continue to support our partner with our expertise and look forward to further future collaborations.”

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