RWE has completed the installation of all 90 turbine foundations and two 50-kilometre long export cables connecting offshore and onshore electrical systems at Triton Knoll.
With a commercial operation date expected in the first quarter of 2022, Triton Knoll wind farm will have an installed capacity of 857MW.
It will be capable of supplying green electricity equivalent to the annual demand of over 800,000 UK homes.
The successful installation was achieved during one of the project’s most challenging times due to the impact of Covid-19, and has been completed within the planned summer delivery window.
Triton Knoll offshore wind farm is located over 32 kilometres off the Lincolnshire coast.
It is jointly owned by RWE (59%), J-Power (25%) and Kansai Electric Power (16%), with RWE leading the wind farm’s construction and long-term operation and maintenance works, on behalf of the project partners.
Total planned investment volume amounts to approximately £2bn.
Triton Knoll was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) by BEIS in September 2017.
A PPA with Orsted, under which the company will offtake 100% of the power produced by the wind farm, complements Triton Knoll’s CfD.
RWE says this is mitigate any market price uncertainty for the first 15 years of the wind farm’s operation.
The developer is the second biggest player in offshore wind globally and has nine UK offshore wind farms in operation.
Further offshore development projects, like the 1.4GW Sofia offshore wind farm – 100% owned by RWE – underline the growth ambitions of the company in this country.
RWE Renewables chief commercial officer and RWE UK country Chair Tom Glover said: “The UK is one of the most important markets for RWE, where we have significant growth ambitions in offshore wind.
“Following in the footsteps of Triton Knoll will be our 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind farm, which has a potential investment value of around £3bn.
“We are also looking forward to developing a number of extension projects to our existing UK offshore wind farms, in connection with opportunities arising from The Crown Estate’s latest leasing round.”
In addition to the UK, RWE’s focus for offshore growth is on further core markets in Europe as well as in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.
In Germany the company is currently building its 342MW Kaskasi offshore wind farm.
RWE’s development pipeline consists of offshore opportunities with about 7GW – not including central tenders, which the company is considering on top.