Evonik has extended its cooperation with EnBW, and signed a second power purchase agreement from the planned “He Dreiht” offshore wind farm. A first power purchase agreement (PPA) was already concluded to purchase 100 megawatts (MW) last year. The second agreement now adds a further 50 MW. As a result, the specialty chemicals company should be able to cover more than a third of its power requirements in Europe from 2026 onwards. The term of the second tranche is also 15 years.

“Extending 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. “We are fully determined to increase the share of green electricity in our energy mix and thus further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

“At present, 27% of Evonik’s externally purchased electricity worldwide already comes from renewable sources. The two PPA tranches secured with EnBW will significantly increase this figure to around 50%,” says Thomas Wessel, management board member responsible for sustainability at Evonik. “At the same time, the cooperation will reduce Evonik’s Scope 2 emissions, i.e., emissions attributable to externally purchased power, by 150,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year,” says Wessel. 

The “He Dreiht” wind farm will be built about 90 kilometers northwest of Borkum and around 110 kilometers west of Helgoland, and is scheduled to enter operation at the end of 2025. In 2017, EnBW secured the contract in the first offshore tendering process in Germany with a zero-cent bid, ushering in a new trend on the offshore market. The offshore wind farm being built without state funding is currently one of Europe’s biggest energy transition projects. Turbines with an output of 15 megawatts are set to be used for the first time here. EnBW is planning to make the final investment decision in the first quarter of 2023.

For more information, visit: https://corporate.evonik.com/en.