Essen, 31 October 2024

The Danish Energy Agency has granted RWE the offshore construction permit for its Danish offshore wind farm Thor. RWE therefore now has all permits in place to start construction work at sea in spring 2025. With more than one gigawatt of capacity, Thor will be able to produce enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than one million Danish households.

Thomas Michel, COO RWE Offshore Wind: “With our Thor project we are delivering Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date. But it is not just the size of the project that makes us ambitious. We are also leading the way with investments in new sustainable technology with recyclable rotor blades and turbine towers made of greener steel. Denmark is already a pioneer when it comes to renewable energy and innovative solutions. We are proud to contribute to this journey with Thor.”

Good progress is already being made on land, with the laying of cables and the construction of an onshore substation in the municipality of Lemvig. At the beginning of next year, RWE will prepare the seabed for the construction activities, which will kick off in spring when the foundations are installed. Turbine installation is scheduled to begin in 2026.

Located approximately 22 kilometres off the west coast of Jutland, Thor will consist of 72 wind turbines (SG 14-236 DD). Half of the turbines will be equipped with CO2-reduced steel towers and 40 turbines will use recyclable rotor blades. The plan is to perform the turbine installation works from the port of Esbjerg. The port of Thorsminde will serve as an operations and maintenance base, creating 50-60 local jobs. Construction of RWE’s new service building is expected to start later this year. Thor is expected to be fully operational by no later than the end of 2027.

Leading global player in offshore wind

RWE already operates 19 offshore wind farms, including Rødsand 2 off the Danish coast. Besides Thor in Denmark, the company is currently building three large-scale offshore wind farms: the Sofia offshore wind farm (1.4 GW) in the UK, the Nordseecluster (1.6 GW) off the German coast and, together with TotalEnergies, the OranjeWind offshore wind farm (795 MW) in the Netherlands. RWE aims to triple its global offshore wind capacity from 3.3 GW today to 10 GW by 2030. 

Image material for media use is available at the RWE Media Centre (Credit: RWE).

You can download the press release here.