Energy supplier EnBW has found investors for its multi-billion project. From 2025, He Dreiht is to supply green power for industry.
Energy company EnBW can start construction of its largest offshore wind farm to date, He Dreiht, now that three investors have been identified for the 2.4 billion project. As the Karlsruhe-based company announced on Thursday, insurer Allianz from Munich, Danish infrastructure investor AIP and Norway’s Norges Bank have acquired a combined stake of 49.9 percent. He Dreiht comes without government funding, but EnBW will receive a loan of 600 million euros from the European Investment Bank.
According to EnBW, the wind farm is one of the largest projects of the energy transition in Europe. It is to generate an output of 960 megawatts (MW), for which 64 turbines from the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas with an output of 15 MW each will be installed. The planned site is located 85 kilometers northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers west of Helgoland and thus in the immediate vicinity of EnBW’s existing Hohe See and Albatros offshore wind farms.
The commissioning of He Dreiht is scheduled for the end of 2025, and according to the operator, the wind farm could then supply electricity for the equivalent of 1.1 million households. Purchase agreements have already been signed with, among others, Frankfurt airport operator Fraport, specialty chemicals group Evonik and conglomerate Bosch. Future customers also include steel manufacturer Salzgitter, which will switch its production from fossil fuels to a hydrogen-based process using green electricity (we reported).
RWE Kaskasi Wind Farm Starts Operation
At the same time, the offshore wind farm Kaskasi of energy provider RWE started operation on Thursday about 35 kilometers north of Helgoland. Kaskasi is the only offshore wind farm built and connected to the grid in Germany last year. With an installed capacity of 342 MW, over 400,000 households can be supplied with green electricity per year, and the investment costs amounted to around 800 million euros. A special feature are the rotor blades from Siemens Gamesa, which are the first in the world to be recyclable.
Photo: iStock/Petmal
