EnBW to focus on growth in European offshore wind
Karlsruhe. Following successful auctions in the UK and the announcement of bold offshore wind build-out targets in Germany, EnBW will focus their future offshore wind activities on the European market. EnBW North America and their assets will be acquired by partner TotalEnergies. In the upcoming months EnBW will continue to support TotalEnergies’ U.S. activities.
EnBW currently is developing their 900MW North Sea wind farm ‘He Dreiht’. In 2021 and 2022 EnBW was successful in auctions in England/Wales and Scotland where EnBW will develop three offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of approximately six gigawatts. Furthermore, the newly elected German government just recently announced ambitious build-out targets – an additional 10GW shall be installed in EnBW’s home market Germany by 2030.
After establishing their U.S. market presence, EnBW started to develop offshore wind opportunities in both the East and West coasts of the country. After bidding in the 2018 Massachusetts offshore wind land lease auction, EnBW’s North America team prepared for the New York Bight land lease auction together with partner Total Energies. With this win in the auction, EnBW will sell their U.S. offshore wind activities to partner TotalEnergies and push forward their European asset.
“We are pleased to have been able to contribute our offshore expertise and experience to this joint success,” said Michael Class, Senior Vice President Power Generation / Portfolio Development. “At the same time, now is also the right time for us to realign our offshore activities with focus on the European market. We would like to thank our partner TotalEnergies for the excellent cooperation and congratulate them on this auction success. We will continue to support our partner with our expertise and look forward to further future collaborations.”
About EnBW
EnBW is one of the largest energy supply companies in Germany and Europe, with a workforce of some 24,000 employees. It supplies electricity, gas, water together with infrastructure and energy-related products and services to around 5.5 million customers. Installed renewable energy capacity will account for 50 percent of EnBW’s generating portfolio by the end of 2025. This is already having a noticeable impact in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, which EnBW plans to halve by 2030. EnBW aims to attain climate neutrality by 2035.
Further expanding renewables in Germany and selected foreign markets is a central element of EnBW’s growth strategy. Since the beginning of its corporate transformation in 2013, EnBW has invested economically successful nearly €5 billion in its Renewable Energies segment. Around another €4 billion is to be invested by 2025, primarily in further expanding wind and solar energy, meaning that a good 50% of EnBW’s generation portfolio will consist of renewables. EnBW was among the pioneers in offshore wind power with its Baltic 1 offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea. In January 2020, the company took into operation Germany’s largest offshore wind power project, EnBW Hohe See and Albatros, with a combined capacity of 609 megawatts. The He Dreiht offshore wind farm with a capacity of 900 megawatts will be connected to the grid in 2025. He Dreiht will operate without any state subsidies. In January 2022, bp and EnBW secured a lease option off the east coast of Scotland to develop a 2.9 GW offshore wind farm. The auction win in Scotland is already the second joint success for EnBW and bp. In 2021 – likewise in January – the partners were awarded lease areas for 3 GW in the Irish Sea. The Morgan and Mona projects being developed there will have a total capacity of up to 3 GW.