Equinor and EnBW have announced that they will jointly pursue offshore wind opportunities in Germany.
“In a tough international field, we are delighted to be working together with a strong partner like Equinor and combining the individual strengths of the two companies to develop German offshore wind…In partnership with Equinor, a global offshore wind major, we will continue to significantly contribute to a climate-friendly energy future in Germany and Europe”, said Michael Class , Head of Portfolio Development Renewables at EnBW.
“Together we combine excellent capability in delivering renewables projects specifically in Germany with international offshore experience, all needed to provide sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy”, said Jens Økland , Senior Vice President for Business Development Renewables in Equinor.
EnBW was among the pioneers in offshore wind power with its Baltic 1 offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.
Baltic 1 features 21 Siemens SWT-2.3-93 turbines installed in the German sector of the Baltic Sea, some 15km north of the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula.
The 48.3 MW project, Germany’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, was inaugurated in May 2011.
In January 2020, the company commissioned Germany’s largest offshore wind project, EnBW Hohe See and Albatros, with a combined capacity of 609 MW.
EnBW is also developing the He Dreiht offshore wind farm in Germany. The project has a grid connection capacity of 900 MW and an excess capacity of 60 MW in order to use the connection capacity as efficiently as possible even when production is lower, according to EnBW, which secured rights to develop the offshore wind farm in April 2017 by placing a zero-subsidy bid in the first competitive tender in Germany.
Offshore construction is expected to start in the first quarter of 2024 with the wind farm scheduled to be fully commissioned by the end of 2025.
When it comes to Equinor, the company’s portfolio includes several offshore wind farms in operation and under development in Germany, the UK, Poland, and Norway.
In Germany, Equinor has a stake in the Arkona offshore wind farm located 35km northeast of the island of Rügen in the German Baltic Sea.
The 385 MW offshore wind project was officially opened in mid-April 2019.
Recently, Norway and Germany announced to work together to develop large-scale value chains for low-carbon hydrogen.
Equinor has the ambition to increase its renewables capacity to 12-16 GW by 2030, and a large share of this will be realised in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, said the company.
In January, Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) published a new area development plan for the expansion of offshore wind energy.
The plan maps out the build-out of offshore wind by 2030, by when the country is to reach 30 GW of capacity connected to its grid and sets the stage for further deployment of wind turbines at sea, with the 2035 target of 40 GW estimated to be exceeded.