German energy giant RWE has signed its largest ever power purchase agreement for a UK wind farm set to be anchored in Grimsby.
EDF, the French multinational electric utility company, has agreed a 15-year deal with the developer to take the generated green electricity from the 1.4GW Sofia farm.
It is set to be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world when built off the North East coast - with 2026 the date anticipated for it to be fully commissioned.
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The equivalent of more than 1.2 million UK homes will be supplied, with EDF to take all the wind energy produced, an anticipated 6.5 terawatt hours annually.
Sven Utermöhlen, chief executive of offshore wind, for RWE Renewables , said: “The UK plays a key role in RWE’s strategy to grow its renewables business and to become carbon neutral by 2040. Sofia will be one of the largest single offshore wind farms in the world once constructed, the signing of the PPA with EDF demonstrates our ability to support electricity suppliers in providing CO2-free power to their customers.”
Sofia will feature 100 turbines Siemens Gamesa 14MW turbines, each standing 252 metres tall. From a single offshore converter platform within the array, electricity generated will connect to the grid in Lackenby, Teesside, hitting landfall at Redcar.
Earlier this year Grimsby was revealed as the location for the operations and maintenance base, with the port already serving near shore developments off East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire as well as Orsted’s Hornsea Zone.
RWE’s Triton Knoll and Humber Gateway are already based in the port, with the base for the former on Royal Dock to be expanded, creating 60 more jobs.
Philippe Commaret, managing director for customers at EDF, said: “This agreement marks a major milestone in our progress towards achieving net zero, as well as the UK’s ambition to grow offshore wind capacity to 40 gigawatts by 2030.
"We are focused on working with partners like RWE to furnish the grid with the scale of renewable energy that it so desperately needs. This is exciting news for our customers and will also set a precedent for the UK’s energy industry - delivering large scale, practical solutions on the road to net zero.”
Sofia will take RWE’s portfolio to nine operational UK farms.
It has a stated ambition of hitting 50 gigawatts internationally by 2030 and is investing £42.5 billion this decade.
Last year it signed agreements for lease with The Crown Estate to develop extension projects at four UK offshore wind farms.
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