German chemicals giant BASF to buy more green power from offshore wind

The agreement will take the form of a sale of 49% of the project shares by Vattenfall to BASF. The parties have signed a memorandum of understanding to formally express their joint ambition.

Vattenfall will use its share of the fossil free electricity to supply its German customers. BASF will receive almost half of the electricity and supply its chemical production sites across Europe, in particular Ludwigshafen.

The Nordlicht windfarm zone is 85 km north of the island of Borkum in the German North Sea and consists of two separate sites: Nordlicht 1 with a capacity of 980 MW and Nordlicht 2 with 630 MW. 

Vattenfall is developing and building the Nordlicht sites. Once fully operational, their combined production is expected to be around 6 terawatt hours per year, equal to the electricity consumption of 1.6 million German households.

The transaction is expected to be signed in the first half of 2024. Pending a final investment decision, which is expected in 2025, construction of Nordlicht 1 and 2 will start in 2026. The windfarms are expected to be fully operational in 2028.

BASF chief executive Martin Brudermüller said, “We need large quantities of renewable electricity at competitive prices. Together with our longstanding partner Vattenfall, we want this project to be another milestone in securing sufficient renewable electricity for BASF in Europe, in Germany, and Ludwigshafen, our largest production site worldwide. With the electric power from Nordlicht 1 and 2, we can drive forward our transformation and further reduce our CO2 emissions.”

This is the second time BASF has announced plans to acquire a stake in one of Vattenfall’s offshore windfarms. In 2021, BASF bought a share of the recently inaugurated Hollandse Kust Zuid windfarm in The Netherlands, currently the largest offshore windfarm in the world. Through its ownership, BASF receives 49.5% of the electricity from the 1.5-GW project.