As announced today by the German Federal Network Agency, RWE has been awarded the N-9.1 and N-9.2 sites in the German North Sea in the current offshore wind auction. The awarded sites are located approximately 110 - 115 kilometres north-west of the island of Borkum on the border with the Dutch Exclusive Economic Zone. The sites are large enough to accommodate offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts each. RWE will pay a total bid price of €250 million for these sites. RWE will explore the possibility of developing the offshore projects together with TotalEnergies.
Sven Utermöhlen, CEO RWE Offshore Wind: “Offshore wind is one of the main pillars of Germany's energy transition and RWE's Growing Green strategy. With today's success, we are adding two more large-scale wind farms to our already strong German offshore wind portfolio, and we look forward to realising the new projects - possibly with TotalEnergies. Our teams are already in the starting blocks.”
The investment decisions are expected to be taken by 2027 (N-9.1) and 2028 (N-9.2). Subject to the necessary permits, offshore construction could start in 2029 and 2030, with full commissioning planned for 2031 and 2032 respectively.
A total of three areas (N-9.1, N-9.2 and N-9.3) with a total capacity of 5,500 megawatts were put out to tender in the offshore wind tender in August 2024. The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) carried out preliminary studies for the areas awarded in the auction and collected essential information on the marine environment, the subsoil, and the wind and oceanographic conditions. The data is available to RWE and will be used as a basis for further planning of the wind farms. The projects have a legal right to be connected to the grid, which is planned for 2030 (N-9.1) and 2031 (N-9.2). The licences have a term of 25 years and can be extended to 35 years.
RWE already operates 19 offshore wind farms, including six off the German coast. The company is also currently building four large offshore wind farms: the Sofia offshore wind farm (1.4 GW) in the UK, the Thor offshore project (1.1 GW) in Denmark and the OranjeWind offshore wind farm (795 MW) in the Netherlands together with TotalEnergies, as well as the Nordseecluster with a total capacity of 1.6 GW north of the island of Juist in Germany. RWE aims to triple its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3 GW today to 10 GW by 2030.
Images for media purposes of offshore wind farms from the RWE portfolio are available in the RWE Media Centre (image rights: RWE).
