Even more wind energy from the North Sea: Evonik has expanded its cooperation with EnBW and concluded a second electricity supply contract from the planned “He Dreiht” offshore wind farm. A purchase of 100 megawatts (MW) was already agreed upon in the first Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) last year, and the second contract increases this volume by a further 50 MW. This means that the specialty chemicals company is expected to be able to cover more than a third of its electricity requirements in Europe from 2026. The term of the second tranche is also 15 years.

Expansion of renewables via the market instead of subsidies

“The expansion of the cooperation with EnBW is the next step on our way to significantly reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and their price fluctuations,” says Christian Kullmann, CEO of Evonik. Evonik only announced the first part of the PPA with EnBW in November. Further supply contracts for green electricity directly from the producer are now being planned. “We are determined to increase the proportion of green electricity in our energy mix and thus further reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” says Kullmann.

“We are realising the ‘He Dreiht’ wind farm without subsidies from the market. For us, long-term power purchase agreements are the right way to expand renewables,” explains EnBW board member Georg Stamatelopoulos. “PPAs have established themselves as a central instrument of the energy transition. It is, therefore, all the more important that state intervention in the market does not represent a permanent solution. This could have a negative impact on the willingness to invest and inhibit the further expansion of renewables. We are very pleased to be able to support Evonik in reducing CO 2 emissions with another offshore wind energy package. In this way, we are gradually contributing to the decarbonisation of industry,” he adds.

Companies are increasingly relying on PPAs for more sustainability

“In the past year, we have seen a significant increase in inquiries from medium-sized and large companies,” says Stamatelopoulos. “This shows the great interest of companies in consistently pursuing their own sustainability goals using PPAs. This is an essential contribution to the energy transition, which we can only achieve together.”

“Today, 27 percent of the electricity purchased externally at Evonik worldwide comes from renewable sources. The realisation of the two slices of the PPA with EnBW increases this share significantly to around 50 percent,” says Thomas Wessel, the Evonik Executive Board member responsible for sustainability. “At the same time, the cooperation reduces Evonik’s Scope 2 emissions, i.e. those emissions that can be attributed to the external procurement of electricity, by 150,000 tons of CO 2 per year,” says Wessel.

900 MW EnBW offshore wind farm is scheduled to go into operation in 2025

The “He Dreiht” wind farm is being built around 90 kilometres northwest of Borkum and around 110 kilometres west of Helgoland and is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2025. In 2017, EnBW secured the contract in the first offshore tender in Germany with a zero-cent bid and thus initiated a new trend in the offshore market. The subsidy-free offshore wind farm is currently one of the largest energy transition projects in Europe. Turbines with an output of 15 megawatts are to be used for the first time. EnBW is planning the final investment decision in the first quarter of 2023.

Source: https://www.evonik.com/
Image source: Courtesy of Evonik; image credit: Rolf Otzipka

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