RWE, Northland Power choose Havfram Wind to develop Nordseecluster offshore wind project
(WO) – RWE and Northland Power are making progress on the deployment of their joint offshore wind project Nordseecluster. The companies have selected Havfram Wind as the preferred supplier for their cluster of up to 1.6 gigawatts (GW), which consists of four offshore wind farm sites in the German North Sea. The Norwegian company is to transport and support the installation of a minimum of 104 Vestas offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 15 megawatts (MW) each.
The Nordseecluster will be constructed in two phases. Two offshore 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 offshore 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.
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. In order to deploy the cluster, the partners will rely on experienced suppliers like Havfram Wind, as well as their own expertise in offshore wind.
Sven Schulemann, RWE's Managing Director of the Nordseecluster, said, "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."
Havfram Wind is an offshore wind construction company that specializes in transport and installation services for both bottom fixed and floating projects in the offshore wind sector. For the Nordseecluster, Havfram Wind will be utilizing one of its newly built NG20000X Jack-Up vessels with a 3,250-tonne crane.
