Evonik and EnBW sign a long-term supply contract for wind energy from He Dreiht
Published by Abi Larkin,
Editorial Assistant
Energy Global,
Evonik is becoming less dependent on fossil fuels: The specialty chemicals company signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for wind energy with the energy supplier EnBW. The PPA provides Evonik with 100 MW from the new 900 MW He Dreiht wind farm in the German North Sea. This agreement alone will enable Evonik to cover approximately a quarter of its electricity needs in Europe with renewable energy from 2026 on. EnBW will supply the green electricity over a period of 15 years. Since chemical production requires a constant energy supply, Evonik will compensate for fluctuations of the wind energy feed-in through its own balancing group management.
“Together with EnBW, we are accelerating the implementation of our ambitious sustainability strategy. We are becoming less dependent on fossil fuels and their price fluctuations,” said Christian Kullman, CEO of Evonik. “Clearly, the less fossil and more green energy we use, the better the future opportunities for our German and European sites will be.”
The PPA with EnBW is just the beginning. Evonik is working on other agreements for green electricity purchased directly from producers to increase the company’s share of renewable energy usage.
“The green electricity from the new offshore wind farm is a very important lever for our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” stated Thomas Wessel, responsible for sustainability on the Executive Board. “Today, 27% of Evonik’s externally purchased electricity worldwide already comes from renewable sources. Implementing the PPA with EnBW significantly increases this share to more than 40%.”
At the same time, the co-operation reduces Evonik’s Scope 2 emissions [electricity from external sources] by 100 000 tpy of CO2. The company recently announced the goal of reducing its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from the current 6.5 million t to 4.9 million t by 2030. Approximately one-third of this net reduction will be achieved by switching to renewable energy sources.
PPAs are supporting the energy transition
The He Dreiht wind farm will be built approximately 90 km northwest of Borkum and 110 km west of Helgoland. It is scheduled to start operating at the end of 2025. In 2017, EnBW won the first tender in Germany with a zero-cent bid and thus initiated a new trend in the offshore market. The subsidy-free offshore wind farm is currently one of Europe’s largest energy transition projects. For the first time, 15 MW turbines will be deployed.
As a central instrument of the energy transition, PPAs are becoming increasingly important: “We can only achieve the energy transition together. PPAs are a tool for this. They help companies to achieve ambitious climate targets and enable developers of renewable energy projects to obtain reliable financing. This way, the economy and the climate both benefit,” explained EnBW Management Board Member, Georg Stamatelopoulos. “With Evonik, we have gained another strong partner for our He Dreiht offshore wind farm,” he added. EnBW will make the final investment decision on the offshore wind farm in 2023.
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Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/wind/04112022/evonik-and-enbw-sign-a-long-term-supply-contract-for-wind-energy-from-he-dreiht/
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