RWE has made a final investment investment decision to build the 1600MW Nordseecluster wind complex in the German North Sea.
The wind farms will be built in the North Sea, about 50km north of the island of Juist, with suppliers of the main components already selected.
“Our portfolio already includes six offshore wind farms off Germany’s coastlines,” said RWE Offshore Wind chief executive Sven Utermöhlen.
He added: “The Nordseecluster will add two more. This sends out a good signal for the energy transition in Germany and for RWE.
“With a total capacity of 1.6GW, these wind farms will generate around 6.5 terawatt hours of green electricity per year.
“This will contribute in particular to the decarbonisation of industry in our home market.”
The Nordseecluster is being implemented in two phases – A and B.
Nordseecluster A has a total capacity of 660MW and manufacturing of some key components has already started.
Construction at sea is scheduled to begin next year and by the beginning of 2027, all 44 turbines should be connected to the grid.
Nordseecluster B will add a further 900MW of capacity and its 60 turbines are scheduled to start commercial operation from the beginning of 2029.
RWE does not have to make any lease payments to the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) for the Nordseecluster sites, said the company.
The size of the cluster will provide synergy effects for RWE in the construction and subsequent operation of the wind farms.
The developer will use the green electricity generated from the wind farms to support its industrial customers on the path to decarbonisation with customised energy solutions. These customers increasingly include operators of AI data centres.
RWE has already selected its partners to implement its Nordseecluster:
Atlantique Offshore Energy will supply two offshore transformer substations.
Hellenic Cables was selected for the cable manufacture.
The foundations for the turbines will be manufactured by Dajin Offshore and installed at sea by Van Oord.
Vestas will supply its V236-15.0 MW turbines, each with a capacity of 15MW.
Transport and installation of the hardware will be performed by Havfram Wind, using its installation vessels Norse Wind and Norse Energi.