RWE acquires large UK offshore wind portfolio from Vattenfall — EnergyWatch

German utility company RWE has reached an agreement with Swedish Vattenfall to buy the entire Norfolk offshore wind development site in the UK, according to an announcements from the two companies on Thursday evening.

For the Norfolk site, which includes plans for the Norfolk Vanguard West, Norfolk Vanguard East and Norfolk Boreas wind farms, Vestas signed agreements with Vattenfall on Wednesday that could make the Danish company a supplier of wind turbines for the farms, which have a total capacity of just under 4.2 gigawatts (GW).

For Norfolk Vanguard, Vestas has been selected as preferred supplier, and an exclusivity agreement has been signed for the other two projects.

The projects are located off the east coast of England and the total package is one of the world’s largest offshore wind development projects, according to Vattenfall.

According to the Swedish company, at full capacity the farms can generate power for approximately 4 million UK households.

”Vattenfall believes that the agreement with RWE is the best way forward for both the company and the Norfolk projects,” Vattenfall writes about the deal.

RWE, which is paying GBP 963 million for the acquisition, is pleased to take over three projects that are at an advanced stage of development and with several key permits in place.

”With the acquisition of the Norfolk portfolio, we are taking over three well-developed offshore wind projects from Vattenfall,” Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of the offshore wind business at RWE Renewables, said in a statement from the German company.

Ørsted is also well represented in the UK offshore wind market.

In fact, the Danish utility company has 15 different offshore wind farms in UK waters.

These include four development phases of the Hornsea project, Barrow, Burbo Bank and Burbo Bank Extension, Gunfleet Sands, Isle of Man, Lincs, Race Bank, Walney and Walney Extension, West of Duddon Sands and Westermost Roughc.