Deutsche Bahn sings new PPAs for offshore wind, solar and hydro

Wind turbines at sea. Author: Harvey Barrison. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) on Thursday announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 780 GWh of green electricity from hydro, solar and offshore wind parks.

The new contracts support the company’s goal to be sourcing 100% renewable electricity for its trains by 2038. It has already reached a share of 61% and aims at 80% in 2030. Subsidiary DB Energie, the fifth largest electricity supplier in Germany, is gradually replacing contracts for energy from fossil fuels with renewables.

The table contains details on the new PPAs.

Name	Egglfing-Obernberg Hydropower Plant	Amrumbank-West	Gaarz bei Plau am See project
Technology	Hydro	Offshore wind	Solar
Location	Lower Bavaria	North Sea	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Plant owner	Verbund AG	RWE AG	Enerparc AG
Annual supply agreed	440 GWh	260 GWh	80 GWh
Start of supply	2023	Autumn 2024
PPA term	5 yrs	15 yrs	30 yrs

The PPA with German energy major RWE AG (ETR:RWE) is for roughly a quarter of the capacity of the 288-MW Amrumbank West offshore wind farm. The facility has been operational since 2015 off the coast of Heligoland.

RWE noted that its hydropower stations have been supplying about 880 GWh per year to DB since 2014. In 2019, the two companies also signed a PPA for electricity from the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm, with supply starting in 2024.

Enerparc’s 90-MW solar park serving RWE will be up and ready to run in the first half of 2021. In January 2020, the company and DB signed another solar deal for a 42-MW project in Schleswig-Holstein.

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