Evolve Energy, a UK-based energy supplier offering solutions for direct access to renewable energy for industrial and commercial businesses, has entered into a nine-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Shell for electricity generated by the Race Bank offshore wind farm, with which Shell has an offtake agreement.
Under the agreement, which represents Evolve Energy’s largest offshore wind PPA to date, the company will offtake around 112 GWh of renewable electricity per year until 2035, totalling over 1 TWh over the lifetime of the agreement.
Evolve Energy will supply the electricity to over 80 different industrial and commercial customers through a “renewable basket” model, which aggregates demand from multiple organisations, allowing businesses to directly access renewable energy of differing technologies through a single commercial framework. This solves the accessibility challenges many organisations face when seeking to acquire renewable energy, according to the company.
For Shell, the PPA with Evolve Energy comes shortly after a similar agreement with the foodservice provider Sysco GB, which recently signed a PPA to source 20 GWh of electricity a year until 2035 from the Race Bank offshore wind farm.
Located approximately 27 kilometres off the Norfolk coast, the Race Bank offshore wind farm, built and operated by Ørsted, comprises 91 Siemens Gamesa 6.3 MW turbines for a total installed capacity of 573 MW.
The offshore wind farm has been in operation since 2018.
As of mid-2024, the Race Bank offshore wind farm is owned by a consortium led by Ørsted (50 per cent), Norges Bank Investment Management (37.5 per cent), and Arjun Infrastructure Partners (12.5 per cent).