Utility RWE has set out plans for a “state-of-the-art” offshore wind farm off Poland including green hydrogen and energy storage as part of 7.8GW of proposals it handed in to the government there.
The 1.8GW Sharco Duo project, adjacent to RWE’s already advancing FEW Baltic 2 wind farm, is among five seabed applications the German giant has submitted ahead of auctions planned in 2025.
RWE claimed synergies with FEW Baltic 2 – which has already secured Polish government support as part of a first 5.9GW wave of projects in the nation’s waters – mean the next-door Sharco Duo could be producing power as soon as 2028.
The developer outlined ambitions plans for the project, in about 45-metre water depths northwest of the Slupsk Bank in the Polish Baltic Sea, which it claimed could eventually supply 11 million people.
Sharco Duo “supports the perfect integration of the offshore wind farm into the Polish energy system, including green hydrogen production, offshore and onshore, together with innovative electricity storage solutions,” RWE said, stressing the eco-credentials of a project that will feature “low-noise foundation installation systems and sustainable usage of recyclable components”.
Grzegorz Chodkowski, vice president offshore development Poland at RWE Renewables, claied: “Based on our experience in offshore wind we are in a perfect position to deliver both Sharco Duo and other offshore wind farms we applied for to simultaneously support local industries and create new, future-proof jobs.”
Sharco Duo and the other projects for which RWE applied for seabed permits under Poland’s competitive process will if successful be in a position to qualify for contract-for-difference (CfD) auctions due to be held in 2025.
RWE offshore wind chief executive Sven Utermöhlen said there would be “more to come” from the German giant, which earlier in October released details of another of its planned Polish projects, the up to 1.5GW Freeboard 1.
Poland plans to hold CfD tenders for 2.5GW each in 2025 and 2027 as part of a 2040 energy strategy that foresees close to 11GW of wind at sea by then.
On top of that, Warsaw intends to grant a further 11 projects seabed permits, which could push the overall offshore wind capacity to nearly 20GW, Siemens Gamesa’s Poland managing director Pawel Przybylski told Recharge earlier this year.
