Germany's Federal Network Agency has auctioned off the rights for the construction of two wind farms in the North Sea for just over €3 billion ($3.2 billion).
The contracts concern two areas around 120 kilometres north-west of Helgoland, a small German archipelago in the North Sea. One has a capacity of 1,500 megawatts, and the other 1,000 megawatts, the Bonn-based agency said on Friday.
The bidding consortium Offshore Wind One GmbH was awarded the contract for one area for €1.96 billion, while a project company of energy group EnBW paid €1.07 billion for the other.
They can now apply for planning permission to construct and operate wind turbines and feed the electricity into the national grid. The wind farms are scheduled to come online in 2031.
EnBW plans to sell most of the electricity produced by the offshore wind farm in future to industrial customers via power purchase agreements. This should reportedly cover the electricity needs of 1.35 million households.
This is only the second time that companies in Germany have paid money for offshore wind rights. Previously they were given money as a subsidy for acquiring the rights, or later waived the subsidy. But now the companies must pay to be able to build in the areas. Last year, the network agency organized an auction for the first time, raising €12.6 billion.
According to EnBW, wind turbines with a capacity of almost 8,500 megawatts were installed in the North Sea and Baltic Sea at the end of 2023.
According to the German government, this figure is set to rise to 30,000 megawatts by 2030.
"The results show the attractiveness of investing in offshore wind energy in Germany," Network Agency head Klaus Müller said on Friday.
