German utility EnBW enters US offshore wind market with California project

German utility EnBW is expanding into the North American market for offshore wind, forming a joint venture with Trident Winds to develop a project off the coast of Central California, the German company said on Monday. EnBW North America and Seattle-based Trident Winds will advance the 650–1,000 megawatt “Morro Bay” project with a grid connection in Morro Bay, said EnBW, which is majority-owned by the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The project will be the region’s first large-scale floating offshore wind farm, a technology which EnBW says will be the future of offshore because it opens new areas with greater water depth and better wind conditions. EnBW already operates 336 megawatts in offshore capacity, has 610 megawatts under construction and an additional 900 megawatts under development. Germany’s large utilities have struggled to reorganise their business amid the country’s ambitious push to phase out nuclear power generation and cut back carbon emissions by boosting renewable energy. Former main domestic rivals E.ON and RWE have drastically revamped their company structures and entered a complex deal to reshape the German energy market, while EnBW has firmly bet on renewables. The group said earlier this year that 2017 marked a turnaround on profitability, and posted another rise in operating profits in the first quarter 2018.

Find the EnBW press release here and get background on how Germany’s battered utilities take on start-ups in innovation race and Germany’s offshore wind industry in the CLEW dossiers.