REWE Group, one of Germany’s leading food retailers, has signed a 10-year power purchase agreement with Ørsted to procure 100 MW of green electricity from Ørsted’s Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm which is set to become operational in 2025.
Having procured electricity from renewable energy sources since 2008, the agreement with Ørsted represents REWE Group’s largest renewable energy offtake agreement to date and makes REWE Group the first German food retailer to purchase electricity from an offshore wind farm in the North Sea.
The 100 MW of green power from Borkum Riffgrund 3 equals the power consumption of 1,500 REWE stores. REWE Group has a goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040.
“Our goal is to become climate neutral by 2040,” said Lionel Souque, 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.”
The power purchase agreement with Ørsted was signed and will be managed by EHA Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft, REWE Group’s energy procurement arm.
Jan-Oliver Heidrich, 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.”
At Ørsted, the world leader in offshore wind, Rasmus Errboe, Head of Region Continental Europe, applauds REWE group for supporting the transition from fossil to green energy:
“The world urgently needs to shift to renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions. To achieve this systemic change, action is needed from governments, energy providers, and corporate energy customers. REWE Group has a long tradition of buying sustainable power, and by purchasing power from Borkum Riffgrund 3, they’re supporting the build-out of affordable new renewable energy at industrial scale.”
More than a decade ago, Ørsted started an ambitious transformation, moving from being one of Europe’s most coal-intensive energy companies to becoming a world leader in offshore wind and being named the most sustainable energy company in the world by Corporate Knights in 2019, 2020, and 2021. By 2030, Ørsted aims to install 50 GW of renewable energy capacity world-wide, including 30 GW of offshore wind and 17.5 GW onshore wind and solar PV.
REWE Group and Ørsted sign long-term power purchase agreement for future German offshore wind farm