RWE has selected Atlantique Offshore Energy, the marine energy business unit of French company Chantiers de l’Atlantique, as the preferred supplier of two offshore substations for the first phase of its Nordseecluster development in the German North Sea.
The Nordseecluster will be constructed in two phases, Nordseecluster A and Nordseecluster B, each comprising two offshore wind farms.
The two Nordseecluster A wind farms (N-3.8 and N-3.7), located 35 kilometres north of Juist Island and 55 kilometres off the German coast, will have a combined capacity of 660 MW and are currently in the permit application stage.
Atlantique Offshore Energy has been selected to design, construct, install and commission the offshore substations for this first phase, Nordseecluster A.
According to RWE, the design work has already started, with the permit application process expected to begin in 2024, and full installation including commissioning of the substation scheduled for 2026.
This Nordseecluster A offshore wind farms will comprise a total of 44 Vestas 15 MW wind turbines and are scheduled for commercial operation in early 2027.
“With this agreement we have passed the next milestone on the way to completing the first two offshore wind farms of our Nordseecluster. When they become operational in 2027, we will be making a further contribution towards supporting the decarbonisation drive in our home market. After the successful delivery of the Arkona offshore substation in 2018, we are looking forward to working with Atlantique Offshore Energy again” , said Sven Schulemann , RWE’s Managing Director of the Nordseecluster.
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As reported at the beginning of last year, RWE has also selected Atlantique Offshore Energy for the offshore substation for its F.E.W. Baltic II wind farm in the Polish Baltic Sea.
For the second phase of its 1.6 GW Nordseecluster project, the 900 MW Nordseecluster B, RWE plans to secure the two sites (N-3.6 and N-3.5) by bidding and exercising the step-in rights in the German offshore wind auctions this year, as they did for the Nordseecluster A sites in 2021.
This second phase is planned to be built by 2029.
If all four wind farms of the Nordseecluster development are built, the project will be able to produce enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of 1,600,000 German households every year, according to the developer.