RWE steps up offshore wind farm push

Just weeks after gaining approval for a 750MW offshore wind warm off the coast of North Wales, German energy giant RWE has continued its push into the sector by unveiling plans for a 960MW facility off the coast of Germany.

The company's renewables arm RWE Innogy said today that it has acquired the project company ENOVA Energieanlagen GmbH, including the rights to Germany's largest planned offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

The €2.8bn (£2.6bn) plans are still subject to final approval, but the company is hoping to gain approval by the end of 2009 with a view to having the first turbines running from 2011. The whole project is scheduled to be completed by 2015.

RWE is one of Europe's largest carbon emitters and is heavily reliant on coal for the bulk of its energy, but RWE chief executive Dr Juergen Grossmann said that the project further underlined its commitment to contributing to efforts to meet the EU's recently finalised emission reduction targets.

"Some 1,000 megawatts of windpower on the high seas – that is the largest single project RWE has undertaken so far in the area of renewables," he said. " Even in these times of economic crisis, RWE Innogy is consciously stepping up its investment pace."

RWE is now one of the leading players in the field of offshore wind energy. In addition to the German project and the planned Gwynt y Môr off the coast of Wales, the company operates the 60MW offshore wind farm in North Hoyle off the coast of Wales and is building the 90MW Rhyl Flats wind farm. In November, it also shelled out to acquire a 50 per cent stake in the 500MW Greater Gabbard project.