EnBW to supply zero-support offshore wind power to airport operator Fraport
Clean Energy Wire / Handelsblatt
The demand for zero-support renewable electricity is booming and the latest sign is a large-scale power purchase agreement (PPA) energy company EnBW concluded with airport operator Fraport, reports Handelsblatt. Fraport and EnBW agreed that the Frankfurt Airport operator will receive 85 megawatts (MW) from the 900 MW EnBW He Dreiht wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of Germany from 2026 onwards. He Dreiht is scheduled to go into operation in 2025 and it is one of the world’s first offshore wind farms without support. The investment decision is planned for 2023, said Fraport and EnBW in a press release. “PPA agreements of this magnitude enable a company like Fraport to become completely climate neutral,” EnBW Board of Directors member Georg Stamatelopoulos told Handelsblatt.
As support for renewables installations is being phased out in Germany, PPAs are becoming a key element of the energy transition. They are contracts between a power generator and consumer – for example, between a wind park and a factory – and specify the terms for the sale of electricity and guarantee long-term price security. But the volume of new renewable energy projects backed by PPAs in Germany trails that of other European countries.
