EDF has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with RWE covering all the capacity of the 1400MW Sofia offshore wind farm, off the UK.
In what represents RWE and EDF’s largest renewable energy agreement to date, EDF will offtake the 6.5 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable wind energy that Sofia will produce each year.
This equates to almost half of the electricity used in the north east of England annually.
Philippe Commaret, managing director, customers, at EDF, said: “This agreement marks a major milestone in our progress towards achieving net zero, as well as the UK’s ambition to grow offshore wind capacity to 40GW by 2030.
“We are focused on working with partners like RWE to furnish the grid with the scale of renewable energy that it so desperately needs.
“This is exciting news for our customers and will also set a precedent for the UK’s energy industry – delivering large scale, practical solutions on the road to net zero.”
Sven Utermohlen, CEO offshore wind, at RWE Renewables, said: “The UK plays a key role in RWE’s strategy to grow its renewables business and to become carbon neutral by 2040.
“Sofia will be one of the largest single offshore wind farms in the world once constructed, the signing of the PPA with EDF demonstrates our ability to support electricity suppliers in providing CO2-free power to their customers.”
RWE is constructing the Sofia and Triton Knoll offshore wind farms, which, when completed will expand RWE’s current UK portfolio of nine offshore wind farms.