Hamburg/Cologne: Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft (EHA), the central energy service provider of REWE Group, and Ørsted, the world market leader in the planning, construction and operation of offshore wind farms, signed a 10-year corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) today. REWE Group is the first and only food retailer in Germany that will use green power generated by a North Sea wind farm to operate its business units Retail Germany, Toom DYI stores and Travel and Tourism.
Our goal is to become climate neutral by 2040,
said Lionel Souque, the CEO of REWE Group. It is obviously an ambitious goal. But it is also a goal that we will achieve. We must achieve it because energy plays a strategic role in our business: We are a green power pioneer in the German food retail sector. Our stores have been completely using power produced from renewable sources since 2008. Offshore wind energy has tremendous potential. We will take another step towards climate neutrality by using the first green power generated from the North Sea.
Jan-Oliver Heidrich, the Managing Director of EHA, added: By signing the power purchase agreement with the new wind farm, REWE Group is directly promoting the expanded use of renewable energies, is assuming process responsibility and is playing an even more active role in the energy transition.
Rasmus Errboe, the head of the Europe region at Ørsted, described REWE Group as a pacesetter: The world must urgently switch to renewable energies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Measures taken by governments, energy suppliers and even energy customers will be required if our efforts to make this system transition are to succeed. REWE Group is a role model here, particularly because it has been using green power for so long. By purchasing power from the offshore wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 3, it will support the continued expansion of affordable renewable energy on an industrial scale.
The agreement covers the provision of about 100 megawatts (MW) of power that will be generated after the expected completion of the wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 3 in 2025. EHA Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft will handle the details of the energy deliveries. REWE Group became a trailblazer in its business sector in 2008 when it began to use only power produced from renewable sources in its stores and travel agencies. The corporate power purchase agreement with Ørsted is the ideal way to help REWE Group to reach its sustainability goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040.
Ørsted is also pursuing ambitious decarbonisation goals of its own. The company launched its own transformation more than 10 years ago. In the process, it has evolved from one of the most coal-intensive energy company in the business and become the most sustainable energy company in the world. The company plans to install 50 gigawatts (GW) of capacity from renewable energy sources by 2030. This will include 30 GW of offshore wind power. The company itself plans to become climate neural by 2025.
The Borkum Riffgrund 3 wind farm will have total capacity of about 900 MW and was awarded in past offshore wind auctions for 0 cents. The power provided to REWE Group will not be subsidised at all as a result. The amount of power expected to be supplied under the PPA will equal the annual total of electricity used by about 1,500 stores at REWE Group.