EnBW’s 906MW He Dreiht offshore wind farm will supply around 20MW of green electricity to German transport operator Deutsche Bahn under a 15-year deal from 2026.
With the power supplied under the PPA, the entire German traction power network can be supplied for three days, EnBW said.
Furthermore, by procuring power from the He Dreiht wind farm, Deutsche Bahn will be reducing its annual carbon emissions by up to 60,000 metric tonnes in the future.
Torsten Schein, chief executive of DB Energie, said: “Deutsche Bahn will be climate-neutral by 2040. In order to get there, we will be switching to entirely renewable energy sources for the traction power by 2038.
“DB is already Germany’s biggest user of green electricity.
“With the clean power procured from the He Dreiht wind farm, we are now taking another important step toward restructuring our energy portfolio and getting ever closer to achieving our goal.”
Georg Stamatelopoulos, board member for sustainable generation infrastructure at EnBW, added: “The parallels between EnBW and Deutsche Bahn are remarkable: As operators of central infrastructures, we share a common responsibility for society and are pursuing the same goal of achieving a carbon-free energy future.
“Promoting a sustainable energy supply and mobility concept is an essential part of our agenda.
“We are delighted to be able to use our He Dreiht offshore wind farm to drive this agenda with a partner like Deutsche Bahn.”
Work will begin in 2024 on building the offshore wind farm located about 90 kilometres northwest of Borkum and around 110 kilometres west of Helgoland and it will enter operation at the end of 2025.