Vestas Receives 1,380 MW Offshore Wind Turbine Order from RWE

RWE has placed a firm order with Vestas for its 1,380 MW Norfolk Vanguard West offshore wind project in the UK, after the developer secured a Contract for Difference (CfD) for the project in Allocation Round 7 (AR7) in January and announced that the global investment firm KKR would become its partner on the two Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farms.

RWE says it is currently targeting a final investment decision (FID) for Vanguard West in summer 2026, with commissioning of the project expected in 2029.

Vestas’s contract with RWE includes the supply, delivery, and commissioning of 92 of its V236-15.0 MW wind turbines. The developer and the wind turbine OEM also signed a five-year service agreement, followed by a long-term operational support agreement.

The Vanguard West site is located around 47 kilometres off the coast of Norfolk in East Anglia and was first developed by Vattenfall, which sold its three Norfolk Vanguard projects to RWE in 2023/2024 for approximately EUR 1.1 billion.

In January this year, the UK government awarded 8.4 GW of offshore wind capacity in the seventh CfD round (AR7) , with RWE’s projects accounting for 6.9 GW of that capacity.

RWE secured CfDs at a strike price of GBP 91.20/MWh (around EUR 105.25/MWh) for its Norfolk Vanguard East and Norfolk Vanguard West projects, two Dogger Bank South projects, and the Awel y Môr offshore wind farm.

Following the CfD award, RWE announced that the company had signed an agreement with KKR, under which the global investor would acquire a 50 per cent stake in each of the Norfolk Vanguard projects, and that it launched the process to raise non-recourse project finance debt for the two offshore wind farms with both the closing of the partnership transaction and the project financing expected later this year.

FIDs on UK’s Newly Awarded Offshore Wind Farms Coming Up in 2026, 2027 Business & Finance While being developed by Vattenfall, the three projects in the Norfolk Zone (Vanguard East and West, and Boreas) were signed up for Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, but the then-developer switched to Vestas’s V236-15 MW turbines shortly before the projects were taken over by RWE.