German electric utility RWE has signed a long term renewable power purchase arrangement (PPA) with Parkwind, to buy the entire power output from the Northwester 2 wind farm off of Belgian coast.
Image: RWE to buy all of the energy from Northwester 2 wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of Parkwind.
RWE stated that it will sell the electricity and guarantees-of-origin from the offshore wind farm, to its large industrial and municipal customers.
RWE Supply & Trading origination & gas supply chief commercial officer Andree Stracke said: “This is an attractive opportunity for us to secure and manage electricity volumes from renewable generation for the future.
“It confirms RWE’s commitment towards the Belgian energy market and our ambition to expand in renewable energy activities.”
The Northwester 2 wind farm, which is located about 51km from shore in the North Sea, will be powered by 23 of MHI Vestas’ V164 turbines, each with 9.5MW of electricity generating capacity.
The wind farm, when completed in the first half of next year, can generate about 800GWh of renewable electricity annually. The first turbine is expected to be commissioned at the end of this year.
When complete, the wind farm could help in avoiding 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent of removing 170,000 cars from the roads.
Parkwind CEO Eric Antoons said: “The signing of the power purchase agreement is another important milestone for the Northwester 2 Project. We welcome RWE Supply and Trading as a long term partner for the Project and are looking forward to a good cooperation between the two companies.”
According to RWE, Belgium plans to significantly increase its offshore wind capacity in the years to come. The Northwester 2 wind farm is one of the current expansion projects that will make an important contribution to the objective.
Recently, RWE secured clearance from European Commission’s antitrust authorities to acquire E.ON’s renewable and nuclear electricity generation assets. The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area.
RWE and E.ON, both based in Germany, are active across the whole electricity supply chain, from generation and wholesale to distribution and retail of electricity.