RWE gets go-ahead for 1 GW offshore wind farm in the UK

GERMAN energy firm RWE has secured UK government approval to build an offshore wind farm with a capacity of just over 1 GW in the southern North Sea, enough to power around 1m homes.

The Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm will be located off the Essex coast, between Frinton-on-Sea and Holland-on-Sea and will comprise 79 turbines. The project will extend RWE’s existing 353 MW Galloper Wind Farm, which currently supplies electricity to up to 444,000 homes.

Once operational, electricity from the farm will be transmitted to Sandy Point in Essex, where it will connect to a new substation near Little Bromley.

The project is also expected to join the East Anglia Connection Node on the National Grid’s proposed Norwich-Tilbury transition corridor, scheduled to come online in 2031.

RWE offshore plans

The approval comes amid ongoing portfolio changes for RWE’s offshore business. Earlier this year, RWE sold off its FEW Baltic II offshore project in the Polish Baltic Sea to state-owned utility PGE. The project has a planned capacity of 350 MW and is expected to power around 350,000 homes.

Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind, said: “We are convinced that, in synergy with their other portfolio, PGE is better positioned to realise this project than RWE would be on a standalone basis.

“However, our target to further grow our offshore wind portfolio remains unchanged. We are currently building four large-scale offshore wind farms in four European countries and have several further offshore projects under development.”

The company also brought four solar projects online in the UK recently, adding 185 MW of solar capacity and 35 MW of battery storage to the grid.

RWE currently has a renewable energy portfolio of around 40 GW, with around 4 GW of offshore wind capacity currently operational in the UK.