EnBW offshore wind farm in German North Sea to power Frankfurt airport

The operator of Frankfurt airport is due to buy power from an 85MW portion of EnBW’s 900MW He Dreiht He Dreiht (900MW) Offshorenorth of Borkum, Germany, Europe Click to see full details wind farm in the German North Sea through a corporate power purchase agreement (PPA).

The 15-year deal is due to begin in the second half of 2026, one year after the 60-turbine project is expected online.

It is the first PPA signed for the zero-subsidy wind farm. Developer EnBW aims to step up corporate PPA activity next year.

The German utility had secured the rights to build He Dreiht without subsidy in a German auction in 2017.

“Long-term power purchase agreements are a market response to advancing the energy transition even without government support,” explained EnBW chief executive Frank Mastiaux.

Power from He Dreiht will help airport operator Fraport to transition a substantial portion of electricity consumption at Frankfurt to green energy, it stated.

It will use output from He Dreiht to help power three terminals and other buildings, illuminate the airport tarmac and four runways, and charge the airport’s growing fleet of more than 500 electric vehicles.

Fraport aims to make the carbon footprint of the infrastructure, buildings and ground-handling traffic at Frankfurt airport carbon-free by 2045 without the use of offsetting. It already has a 1.5MW solar array on-site and plans to build more alongside runways and on existing and new building roofs, and also sources power from wind farms where the subsidies under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act, known as EEG, have expired. This year, it will have sourced 26GWh from these wind farms.

He Dreiht will be built about 90km north-west of the island of Borkum and about 110km west of Heligoland.

EnBW plans to make a final investment decision on the project in 2023.

Vestas is in line to supply 60 of its V236-15.0MW turbines for the project.