Offshore wind power: EnBW is planning a huge wind farm in the Irish Sea

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While there is a lull in new projects at the German offshore wind farm, Great Britain is significantly expanding its power generation at sea.

The power company EnBW, headquartered in Karlsruhe, has been awarded the contract for two offshore construction sites in the Irish Sea between Liverpool and the Isle of Man together with the British energy company BP.

This also includes the establishment of a grid connection.

The framework conditions for the electricity price from this future wind farm are still being specified separately, and the project partners have not yet announced the amount of the investment.

It will amount to billions of euros.

With a planned total capacity of 3,000 megawatts, it would be one of the largest offshore wind farm projects in the world and the largest that EnBW has implemented to date.

The double wind farm is scheduled to go into operation in 2028.

Great Britain, the largest market for offshore wind power, has so far put a generating capacity of 10,000 megawatts into operation at sea; it is to be expanded to 40,000 megawatts by 2030.

For comparison: In the German part of the North and Baltic Seas, 1501 wind turbines are currently generating electricity with a total of 7770 megawatts of power.

An expansion of the capacity to 20,000 megawatts by 2030 is planned for Germany.

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The British property management company The Crown Estate (TCE) had identified a total of four areas in this tender round, within which six project areas were awarded to bidders.

"We are very pleased about this auction success in a tough international bidding environment," said Frank Mastiaux, CEO of EnBW.

Dirk Güsewell, Head of Portfolio Development for Renewable Energies at EnBW, said: “Our bids were able to prevail on the most attractive areas of the auction, which are characterized in particular by above-average wind conditions and a favorable approval situation.

The combination of the two areas in the immediate vicinity also offers extensive synergy effects in planning, implementation and subsequent operation. "

The two offshore construction sites are in the Irish Sea.

"Our bids were able to prevail in the most attractive areas of the auction," says Dirk Güsewell from EnBW

Source: WORLD infographic

EnBW and BP are working together on this project for the first time.

Both energy companies highlighted the good combination of their different experiences.

EnBW already has more than ten years of experience in the complicated market for offshore wind power and was one of the pioneering companies in the geographically particularly difficult German market, with the Baltic 1 and Baltic 2 projects in the Baltic Sea and with the Hohe See and Albatros twin wind farms in the German part the Northsea.

BP has been in the offshore oil and natural gas business for more than 50 years, including in the British part of the North Sea.

In addition to projects for onshore wind power, especially in the USA, BP has recently also built up an offshore wind power portfolio there.

The joint project with EnBW is the first that BP is realizing in offshore wind power on its home market in Great Britain.

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Great Britain is currently making far more stringent progress in offshore wind power than Germany.

In Germany, the offshore industry fears a standstill and the migration of skilled workers.

Due to the change in the award procedure, only a few smaller projects for new offshore wind farms will be implemented in this country by 2025.

According to the federal government's current procurement planning, Germany will not reach the expansion level of 40,000 megawatts that Great Britain is aiming for in 2030 until 2040.

Because of its high productivity and reliability, offshore wind power is also the foundation of the energy transition in Germany.

1000 megawatts of power correspond to that of a larger conventional coal-fired power plant.

Offshore wind farms are more likely to ensure a year-round, continuous power supply than onshore wind farms.

In addition, a large amount of hydrogen is to be stored as energy on artificial islands at offshore locations, presumably with wind power by electrolysis.

Denmark is currently working on specific projects for this, and the network operator Tennet is also working on the German market.

"Hamburg remains our competence center for offshore wind power"

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EnBW plans its national and international offshore projects primarily from its location in Hamburg.

Around 150 employees currently work there.

“We have now also opened regional offices in Taiwan and on the east coast of the USA for the respective projects, and we will do the same in Great Britain,” said Stefan Kansy, Head of Development and Construction Planning for Offshore Wind Farm Projects.

“But Hamburg remains our competence center for offshore wind power.” Other companies that are internationally active in this business, such as Vattenfall or Ørsted, also manage their offshore wind power divisions in whole or in part from Hamburg.

The EnBW twin wind farm Hohe See and Albatros in the German part of the North Sea generates around 610 megawatts with a total of 87 wind turbines.

In the German exclusive economic zone of the North Sea, the He Dreiht offshore wind farm with a capacity of 900 megawatts is to go on stream in 2025.

It is one of the new generation of offshore wind farms that were awarded at auctions without government subsidies and that are supposed to refinance themselves on the electricity market.

In addition to Great Britain, EnBW is examining participation in other international offshore auctions, including in the USA and Taiwan, said Dirk Güsewell.

It is a matter of expanding and broadening your own portfolio beyond Germany: "The German offshore wind power market alone is not productive enough for our growth strategy in renewable energies."