Hellenic Petroleum, RWE to develop offshore wind projects in Greece

RWE and Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE), through their respective subsidiaries RWE Renewables and HELPE Renewables, joined forces to jointly explore offshore wind opportunities in Greek waters.

According to an announcement by the German group, the 50-50 partnership was signed recently with the aim to collaborate on the development, construction and operation of wind farms off the Greek coast. The partnership gains additional significance in light of Greece’s current target of 2 GW of offshore wind capacity in operation by 2030 – for both fixed-bottom and floating wind power projects.

“The cooperation with RWE Renewables, a global leader in offshore wind, constitutes an important element in the implementation of our ‘Vision 2025’ strategic transformation process of the group. In particular, this initiative is expected to make a significant contribution to the realization of the group’s strategic target of 2 GW of installed renewables capacity by 2030. We believe that our country has excellent potential for the development of a thriving offshore wind sector and we aim, together with our partner RWE, to lead this effort,” said George Alexopoulos, Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Hellenic Petroleum and Chief Executive Officer of HELPE Renewables.

Utermöhlen: Confident that the Greek offshore wind industry will gain real momentum

“The country’s excellent wind resource in combination with its long coast line result in a vast potential for offshore wind developments, which makes us confident that the Greek offshore wind industry will gain real momentum… Hellenic Petroleum is deeply rooted locally and shares our ambition to drive the growth of offshore wind,” RWE Renewables’ CEO Wind Offshore Sven Utermöhlen stated.

The German energy company already has a partnership with Greece’s Public Power Corp. (PPC or DEI) for 2 GW in total in solar power plants.

“RWE is already present in Greece and offshore wind expands on our solar footprint,” CEO of RWE Renewables Hellas Costas Papamantellos said.

Greek government to publish offshore wind framework in July

The Ministry of Environment and Energy of Greece aimed to complete the regulatory framework for offshore wind last year, but the initiative suffered a delay. The ministry’s General Secretary Alexandra Sdoukou said it is now ready and that it would be submitted for public consultation shortly with the aim of passing it on to parliament later this month.

Sdoukou added the framework follows best practices available in other European markets, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, in order to be successful and provide a beneficial investing environment.

Major Greek and foreign companies entering the offshore market

Apart from HELPE and RWE, other Greek and foreign companies have announced their intention to invest in the offshore sector.

One is the Copelouzos Group, which has two production licenses for a 216 MW project in Alexandroupolis and a 398 MW project in Limnos. The group has signed a cooperation agreement with RF Energy.

Parkwind and Intrakat recently joined forces to develop offshore wind projects in Greece.

Cenergy is another Greek company with successful activity in the offshore market. It produces cables for offshore projects and so far it has participated in the construction of projects such as the Sofia offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom.

It should be noted that Greece has targeted 2 GW to 2.5 GW of offshore wind by 2030 in its National Energy and Climate Plan.