RWE and Northland Power have selected offshore installation firm Havfram Wind as the preferred supplier for their German North Sea offshore wind cluster of up to 1.6 gigawatts (GW). The cluster will consist of four wind farms.
Havfram Wind will transport and support the installation of a minimum of 104 Vestas offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 15 megawatts (MW) each.
All deliverables are subject to final investment decisions for each of the individual phases for the Nordseecluster (A and B).
Sven Schulemann, RWE’s Managing Director of the Nordseecluster: “This is the next important milestone on our way to completing this 1.6-gigawatt cluster. When the Nordseecluster is fully operational at the beginning of 2029 it will generate enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of 1,600,000 German households every year.”
The Nordseecluster will be constructed in two phases. Two wind farms (N-3.8 and N-3.7) with a combined capacity of 660 MW are currently in the permit application phase. Turbine installation at sea is expected to start in 2026, with commercial operations starting in early 2027. Of the total of 104 Vestas turbines, 44 are reserved for this initial stage (Nordseecluster A).
Two further wind farms (N-3.6 and N-3.5) for the second phase (Nordseecluster B) will add an additional 900 MW of capacity, with commercial operation expected to start in early 2029. For both sites, RWE and Northland Power plan to bid and exercise their step-in rights in this year’s German offshore wind auctions – as they did in 2021 for Nordseecluster A.
For the Nordseecluster, Havfram Wind will be using one of its newly built NG20000X Jack-Up vessels with a 3,250-tonne crane.
The Nordseecluster will be located close to the existing 332 MW Nordsee One wind farm, which RWE and Northland Power co-developed and continue to operate jointly.