The three projects, each with a planned capacity of 1.4 gigawatts (GW), are located 50 to 80 kilometres off the coast of Norfolk in East Anglia. After 13 years of development, the three development projects have already secured seabed rights, grid connections, Development Consent Orders and all other key permits.
The Norfolk Vanguard West and Norfolk Vanguard East projects are most advanced, having secured the procurement of most key components. The next milestone in the development of these two projects is to secure a Contract for Difference (CfD) in one of the upcoming auction rounds. RWE will resume the development of the Norfolk Boreas project, which was previously halted. All three Norfolk projects are expected to be commissioned by 2030.
Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind, said, “With the acquisition of the Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone portfolio, we are taking over three well-advanced offshore wind projects from Vattenfall.We will deliver these as part of our Growing Green investment and growth program.“
Tom Glover, RWE’s UK Country Chair, said, “The UK has been one of our most important core markets for decades. We are delighted that we can now further contribute to achieving the UK’s ambitious build-out targets for offshore wind. We very much welcome the UK government’s recent decisions on future offshore wind auctions which provides us with the confidence to invest and represents a positive step in maximizing the UK’s clean energy potential, ensuring sustained and lowest prices for consumers and creating good quality jobs.”
The Norfolk portfolio will be part of RWE’s Growing Green investment and growth program. Its acquisition will add three highly attractive projects to RWE’s project pipeline. RWE’s net capacity target to add more than 30 GW by 2030 remains unchanged.
The agreed purchase price to acquire the Vattenfall portfolio is based on an enterprise value of £963 million. The majority of the purchase price relates to expenses spent to date.
Closing of the transaction is subject to approval by The Crown Estate and regulatory approvals, and expected for the first quarter of 2024.
The UK plays a key role in RWE’s strategy to grow its offshore wind portfolio.
