RWE Signs Six New PPAs for Kaskasi Offshore Wind Farm
February 19, 2024
Germany's top utility RWE has signed six new power purchase agreements (PPAs) with major industrial customers for the supply of around 1,000 GW/h of green power per year from its Kaskasi offshore wind farm, starting from 2026.
The PPAs have been signed between RWE Supply & Trading and DHL Group, Ensinger, Evonik, Infraserv Höchst, thyssenkrupp Steel Europe and Vodafone.
The new PPAs follow the one with the retail divisions of the Schwarz Group in spring 2023, bringing the total power purchase contracts signed for the Kaskasi offshore wind farm to seven.
Most of the contracts run for 10 years and include either a direct purchase (as-produced), a scheduled profile delivery (as-nominated) a delivery of constant volumes (baseload delivery), RWE said.
The first contract will start in 2026, with further contracts to follow in 2027 and 2028, thus fully allocating the electricity volume available for the PPAs.
RWE's Kaskasi wind farm is located around 35 kilometers off the coast of Heligoland in Germany and has 38 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 342 MW.
Kaskasi can supply 400,000 households a year with green electricity, according to RWE.
Three of the wind farm's turbines have the world's first rotor blades that can be recycled at the end of their life. Thanks to a new type of resin, the materials used can be separated from each other for the first time. Other innovations include special steel collars for some of the foundations, based on an RWE patent, and a concrete ring that expands in the seabed.
The aim is to achieve a more stable connection between the seabed and the piles, allowing shorter piles to be used in the future.
The wind farm Kaskasi is part of the Heligoland cluster, which also includes the Amrumbank and Nordsee Ost wind farms, and is scheduled to go into regular operation in spring 2023.
In the German North Sea, RWE also has stakes in the Nordsee One and Alpha Ventus 1 and 2 wind farms, as well as the Arkona offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea.
This gives RWE an offshore wind portfolio in Germany of around 1.2 GW (RWE share).
