Tailwind

We have significantly increased offshore wind power output in the last few years. EnBW Baltic 2 was connected to the grid in 2015 – with more than five times as much output as EnBW Baltic 1. The electricity generated by the wind farm supplies an aggregate of around 340,000 households. We are now moving from the Baltic Sea to even larger projects in the North Sea. The construction of two new wind farms has begun far beyond the coast of Helgoland – EnBW Albatros and EnBW Hohe See. They will feature a total of 87 turbines – only a few more than at EnBW Baltic 2. However, the individual turbines are significantly more powerful and demonstrate the technical developments that have taken place in the offshore wind industry.

This technical progress has also had an impact on land. In 2017, we placed onshore wind farms with an output of 204 MW into operation. Three quarters of these were located in Baden-Württemberg. Our onshore wind farms have a total output of 540 MW – more than three times as much as in 2012. Wind power plants do not only need to be planned and constructed, but also maintained. In order to continue to grow in this attractive business field, EnBW acquired the service provider Connected Wind Services in 2016 – a specialist in wind farm maintenance. In cooperation with the company's own operations managers, this company has thus become a powerful full-service provider in the area of wind power.

Alongside the expansion of renewable energies and the phasing out of nuclear power, the operation of our conventional power plants forms a third important pillar of our power plant business. Conventional power plants will still safeguard the reliable supply of electricity for a long time to come – especially at times when solar and wind power plants cannot generate enough electricity. To ensure we are well equipped for this task, we are optimising our conventional power plants: old coal-fired blocks are being transferred to the reserve and later decommissioned. Priority is being given to new, modern and highly efficient power plants. For example, our combined heat and power plant in Stuttgart-Gaisburg – a power plant that has so far been primarily fired with coal – is being replaced by a flexible gas power plant. This will reduce the CO₂ emissions and secure the environmentally friendly supply of district heating in Stuttgart, while the combined heat and power plant itself will integrate even better into the cityscape of Stuttgart.

As things currently stand, our largest offshore wind farm EnBW He Dreiht is due to be connected to the grid in 2025. The plans envisage the erection of 100 turbines with a total output of 900 MW. We want to increase our offshore capacity to around 2,500 MW over the long term. The face of the energy industry will also continue to change on land. The expansion of decentralised generation such as onshore wind power and photovoltaics means that energy will be generated in many different locations. These generators need to be sensibly networked so that they can feed in, sell or consume electricity, while the overall system remains stable despite the numerous players on the market. Many different measures will contribute to the constant balancing of supply and demand – such as virtual power plants, smart meters or modern electricity storage systems.