Friday 3 December 2021

EDF and RWE sign 15-year PPA for 1.4GW offshore wind farm

EDF has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with RWE to buy renewable electricity from what will become one of the world’s largest single offshore wind farms when it begins operations in 2026.

The site, named Sofia, will be based off the Northeast coast of the UK and is set to provide enough renewable electricity to power 1.2 million UK homes.

EDF has agreed to take all the 6.5TWh of energy that Sofia will produce each year and once the site is completed in five years’ time it will have a capacity of 1.4GW.

The behemoth will stretch across an area of ocean around the same size of the Isle of Man, have 100 turbines that are each 252 metres tall and is estimated to prevent more than 2.5 million tonnes of carbon being emitted each year.

Philippe Commaret, Managing Director of 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.”

Sven Utermöhlen, CEO Offshore Wind at RWE Renewables, added: “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.”