RWE, Vattenfall, Waterkant Energy win 1.8 GW German offshore wind auction - Reuters
RWE, Vattenfall, Waterkant Energy win 1.8 GW German offshore wind auction | Reuters
RWE, Vattenfall, Waterkant Energy win 1.8 GW German offshore wind auction
Wind turbines, including some from RWE's new Kaskasi offshore wind farm, are pictured during the opening of the RWE-Offshore-Windpark Kaskasi, north of Helgoland, Germany, March 23, 2023. Christian Charisius/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
- Companies
FRANKFURT, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Utilities RWE (RWEG.DE), Vattenfall (VATN.UL) and development firm Waterkant Energy have been awarded four offshore wind sites in the North Sea in a tender worth 784 million euros ($864.75 million), the German energy regulator said on Thursday.
The companies secured rights to the areas suited to housing 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of power turbine capacity, the authority, which awarded the rights, said in a statement, adding commissioning was expected in 2028.
The allocation complements a 12.6 billion euros offshore wind tender for 7 GW that two oil majors won last month.
Utility RWE (RWEG.DE) secured 900 MW in the Nordseecluster B, which encompasses areas N-3.6 and N-3.5, some 50 km north of the island of Juist, which RWE in a separate statement said will start producing from 2029.
As RWE already won tenders for 660 MW of nearby North Sea offshore capacity sites last year, which it hopes to start up in 2027, it expects to achieve considerable synergies, it said.
In addition, RWE received area N-6.6, some 50 km north west of Nordseecluster B, where rival bidder Vattenfall has an option to exercise an entry right for co-operation with RWE, but Vattenfall must decide this by Sept. 14, the regulator said.
Area N-6.7 was given exclusively to Waterkant.
The rights entail development, construction and operation of the plants that are guaranteed to receive grid connections.
The regulator, called the Bundesnetzagentur, also said that 90% of the revenue from the tender will go to reducing power prices and the remainder on a 50/50 basis into marine protection and sustainable fishery.
The marine protection part must be paid within one year to the federal budget while the 90% must be paid from 2028 over a period of 20 years.
Whereas the July auction featured a dynamic bidding design, this time the regulator based its decision on what it called "qualitative criteria": money, decarbonisation elements and the application of sustainable technologies.
($1 = 0.9066 euros)
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.