RWE to Enter Cancelled New York Project Into One of Upcoming Offshore Wind Solicitations

August 14, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

RWE plans to participate in one of the upcoming offshore wind solicitations in New York with its 1,314 MW Community Offshore Wind project, one of the three cancelled earlier this year as GE Vernova dropped plans for the 18 MW Haliade-X wind turbine which was planned to be used in the projects.

Community Offshore Wind was among the three offshore wind projects the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) selected in the state’s third offshore wind solicitation round in October 2023. The other two, also cancelled, were Attentive Energy One, developed by TotalEnergies, Rise Light & Power, and Excelsior Wind, developed by Vineyard Offshore.

In April this year, NYSERDA said it cancelled the three offshore wind projects due to ”technical and commercial complexities between provisional awardees and their partners”. The complexities arose with GE Vernova’s offshore wind turbine product pivoting away from the initially proposed 18 MW Haliade-X turbine platform to a 15.5/16.5 MW platform, causing material changes to projects proposed in the third solicitation, according to NYSERDA.

Given these developments, the state agency concluded the ORECRFP22-1 solicitation process with no final awards made.

In its results for the first half of 2024, RWE detailed on the project and the cancellation, and said the company planned to participate in one of the upcoming solicitations.

“Negotiations were concluded with no final awards being made as the wind turbine manufacturer announced that the class of wind turbine originally envisaged for the project was no longer available. Using a different model would have increased the development costs, making the offtake agreement non-viable. We now plan to participate in one of the upcoming invitations to tender in 2024 and 2025 to secure a new contract with conditions reflecting the change”, RWE states in the H1 2024 results document.

The 1,314 MW Community Offshore Wind project is planned to be developed as the first of multiple phases located within the lease area in the New York Bight that the joint venture between RWE Renewables and National Grid acquired in the federal auction in 2022.

The entire lease area can house 3.2 GW of installed offshore wind capacity.