RWE Signs Foundation Agreement with Steelwind for Future Offshore Wind Farms

October 2, 2024, by Adnan Memija

RWE has signed a capacity reservation agreement with the German company Steelwind Nordenham, for the production of up to 300 monopile foundations for its future offshore wind projects in Europe.

Under the agreement, Steelwind will reserve capacity at its German monopile production facility in Nordenham for 320,000 tonnes of steel, equivalent to approximately 200 monopiles, over a 24-month period starting in 2027.

The contract includes an option for a twelve-month extension and offers an additional capacity of 160,000 tonnes of steel, enough to produce approximately 100 monopiles.

The monopiles are said to be used at offshore wind farms which RWE plans to commission in Europe from the end of 2029 onwards. In addition, the agreement gives RWE the option to take up additional services from Steelwind such as secondary steel structure delivery and the provision of storage and marshalling support, said RWE.

By signing an agreement with Steelwind, RWE has taken a big step towards securing the necessary production capacity for monopile foundations and delivering our European offshore wind development projects. This type of framework agreement is exactly what we need given the challenging market conditions”, said Holger Himmel, CFO of RWE Offshore Wind.

Steelwind has been manufacturing monopiles and single-piece foundations with unit weights of u to 2,400 tonnes for offshore wind farms since 2014. The steel for the monopile foundations comes from Dillinger.

Regarding RWE, the company has put 19 offshore wind farms into operation in the past 20 years, including six off the German coast. RWE has set itself a goal of tripling its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3 GW to 10 GW in 2030.

In terms of other news coming from RWE, the company recently signed a Letter of Support with the Port Authority of Setúbal. Under this agreement, the two companies will explore the potential of the port, located south of Lisboa, to become an important industrial hub for the marshalling, assembly, and deployment of key components for large-scale floating offshore wind projects.