Enbridge acquires stake in EnBW’s 112MW Albatros offshore wind farm in North Sea

Canadian energy company Enbridge has acquired a 49.89% stake in German utility Energie Baden-Württemberg’s (EnBW) 112MW Albatros wind farm located in the North Sea.

The remaining 50.1% of the stake will be held by EnBW. Financial details about the transaction were not revealed. Earlier this year, Enbridge agreed to acquire a stake in the 497MW Hohe See offshore wind farm from EnBW.

With this acquisition, the two companies have now expanded their partnership and are expected to jointly realise both the projects.

The participation model agreed by both the parties for the two offshore wind farms outlines that the companies will have a joint responsibility in overseeing and financing the further realisation of the projects from construction to commissioning phases.

As part of the deal, EnBW will continue to control and monitor all activities during the further realisation of the projects and Enbridge will co-develop the projects with its own employees who will join in senior roles in the project team.

Operational management activities and maintenance of the finished wind farms will be taken care of by EnBW, based on a long-term service and management contract.

The Albatros wind farm is located in an "exclusive economic zone" of the North Sea. The wind farm location is also near to EnBW’s Hohe See and He Dreiht wind farms. Albatros, which is spread over an area of 11 km^{2, w}ill include 16 of Siemens’ SWT-7.0-154 turbines. These turbines will cumulatively produce 112MW.

The wind farm has already received a binding approval to connect to the grid and will now be constructed along with the Hohe See wind farm, which received its approval last year.

The two wind farms, Hohe See and Albatros, put together will produce about 610MW of clean energy or about 2.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually. This is equivalent of powering about 710,000 German households, while avoiding about 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 per year. They are scheduled for commissioning in 2019.

The electricity generated by Albatros and Hohe See will thus cover the aggregate electricity requirements of all private households in Munich – Germany's third largest city.

Image: Enbridge buys stake in EnBW’s Albatros wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of EnBW/Matthias Ibeler.