Vattenfall mixes offshore wind messages

The announcement has come just days after the company announced it had sold the ’Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone’ off the east coast of England to energy company RWE for £963 million (€1.1 billion).

In July 2023, Vattenfall said it was pulling out of the Norfolk site, recording a loss of €480 million.

The Norfolk Boreas wind farm, which was designed to have a generating capacity of 1.4GW, was to have been installed 72km off the Norfolk coast and would have comprised 100 turbines with tip-to-tip blade length of 236 metres by Siemens-Gamesa.

While Vattenfall did not respond to MJ’s requests for comment at the time, managing director Johnathan Reynolds, of Norfolk-headquartered clean energy consultancy Opergy, said higher inflation and capital costs, coupled with geopolitical uncertainties and a lack of political incentives, ‘have made offshore winsd and its supply chain particularly vulnerable’.

“The reported cost increases of up to 40% are a clear indicator of the growing pressures that developers and investors face in this industry,” he said. 

With the latest intention to bid, Vattenfall appears to have regained confidence in the sector. The bids are registered under the name Zeevonk, which means ‘sea sparkle’ in Dutch and refers to a particular kind of sea plankton that illulminates the sea so that the water glows in a bright blue colour, even in the dark.

The Alpha and Beta sites each has 2GW of generating capacity but will be slightly different in that plans for Alpha ’will focus on biodiversity criteria’, while Beta ‘is focued on system integration’.

Responding to Martiime Journal’s requests for comment, a Vattenfall spokesperson said:

“We’ve built a strong offshore business and want to drive fossil freedom by making responsible investment decisions as an integrated energy company. The decision to divest the Norfolk projects will allow us to invest in renewable projects that better fit our portfolio and risk appetite. We have 4.4GW under operation in offshore wind and we will continue to develop large-scale offshore wind projects in our portfolio across our markets.

“Offshore wind is essential to the energy transition and Vattenfall believes in the competitiveness of this technology long term. Vattenfall is dedicated to being a leader in the energy transition by making sound investments that optimise this journey in challenging market conditions. We will contribute to getting the offshore wind industry back on a healthy and profitable track with investments where there is a risk/reward profile that matches our requirements.”