Ocean Breeze Energy is set to acquire the Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm in the German North Sea from EWE, RWE and Vattenfall, with the transaction expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The new owner plans to continue operating Germany’s first offshore wind farm beyond its originally planned 20-year lifespan, reversing plans announced last year to decommission the project.
Alpha Ventus, located approximately 45 kilometres north of Borkum, was commissioned in 2010 with twelve turbines and a total capacity of 60 MW. The project was developed as a test and demonstration site and has provided experience with offshore wind technologies, foundations, and operations and maintenance (O&M).
In May 2025, the consortium announced that it had decided to decommission Alpha Ventus and was working with the authorities on an environmentally friendly dismantling concept.
In November last year, a qualification process was launched for a decommissioning contract, with the work expected to start from 2027 and the estimated contract value put at around EUR 50 million.
At the time, the owners had said they had considered various options for the future of the project, including repowering. EWE and RWE noted that Alpha Ventus was a test field rather than a conventional commercial offshore wind farm and that the relatively small site and the size and weight of modern turbines made repowering challenging.
Ocean Breeze Energy now plans to continue operating the wind farm beyond its intended lifespan. The company said its experience operating the neighbouring BARD Offshore 1, which has 80 5 MW turbines and a generation capacity of 400 MW, provides a basis for extending Alpha Ventus’s operating life.
Alpha Ventus comprises six Adwen M5000 and six Senvion 5M turbines installed on two different types of foundations. The project was the first offshore wind farm to be built in German waters and has been used extensively as a test and research platform for the development of the German offshore wind industry.
“With BARD Offshore 1 we have over ten years of experience in the management of offshore wind farms with a legacy turbine technology and we see considerable potential for a profitable operation of alpha ventus. We want to open a new chapter in the alpha ventus success story and fully use the potential of this pioneer project to contribute positively to the energy transition and to net zero”, said Jean Huby, CEO of Ocean Breeze.
The financial terms agreed upon by Alpha Ventus’s current owners and Ocean Breeze Energy have not been disclosed.