Orsted and Amazon have signed a 250MW power purchase agreement (PPA) for output from the planned 900MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm off Germany.
The 10-year PPA will contribute to Amazon’s target of being 100% renewable by 2030 as part of the company’s goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Orsted Offshore continental Europe region head Rasmus Errboe said: “We applaud Amazon’s leadership in corporate renewable energy investments which helps drive the green energy transformation forward.
“This agreement shows that Orsted is well placed to help corporations with green ambitions act on the global climate challenge.”
The 250MW corporate PPA is the largest ever for offshore wind in Europe and is Orsted’s second PPA with the online retailer, following the 2016 agreement on the 253MW Amazon Onshore Wind farm Texas in Scurry County, Texas, the US.
With this latest agreement with Amazon, Orsted has, over the past 12 months, signed corporate PPAs for an accumulated capacity of 1301MW across its global offshore wind portfolio.
Amazon energy director Nat Sahlstrom said: “We are proud to work with Orsted on Amazon’s first offshore wind CPPA, Europe’s largest with 250MW of renewable energy.
“The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm will help toward our goal of powering our operations with 100% renewable energy and reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040.”
Borkum Riffgrund 3 is expected to become operational in 2025, after Orsted’s final investment decision, expected end of 2021.
Borkum Riffgrund 3 will be located in the German North Sea next to Orsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 1 and Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farms.
The wind farm will be built and operated without subsidies.
This is made possible by a set of cost drivers including the installation of next generation wind turbine technology, very good site conditions and high wind speeds, grid connection costs not being part of the project, plus the potential for stabilising revenues through corporate PPAs, Orsted said.
In December 2019, Orsted signed a 10-year corporate PPA with plastics producer Covestro for 100MW of output from Borkum Riffgrund 3.