EnBW has installed the last of 64 turbines at He Dreiht, the 960 MW offshore wind farm north-west of Borkum that is now Germany’s largest. Full operation is expected by the end of summer.
The machines are Vestas V236-15.0 MW units, each rated at 15 MW. The first was set in place by Cadeler’s installation vessel Wind Orca in April 2025. Remaining technical and electrical commissioning work continues in the weeks ahead, after which the farm is expected to supply the equivalent of around 1.1 million households.
The financing structure is the part worth noting. He Dreiht represents an investment of roughly EUR 2.4 billion and is being built without state subsidy. Instead, a large share of its output is contracted through long-term power purchase agreements with industrial and corporate offtakers — among them Evonik at 150 MW, Google and Deutsche Telekom’s power management arm at 100 MW each, Fraport at 85 MW, and Bosch, Salzgitter Flachstahl and SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar at 50 MW each. DHL Group and Deutsche Bahn hold 20 MW each.
That model is directly relevant to the Baltic. Germany’s zero-subsidy offshore auctions have been criticised for pushing risk onto developers, and He Dreiht is the clearest working demonstration that corporate PPAs can carry a gigawatt-scale project in their place. Whether the same depth of industrial demand exists in Poland and the Baltic states is one of the open questions for the next auction round.
Source: IWR Energieletter 33/2026 and EnBW project reporting.
