The Anonymous Widower

Deal Worth £12bn Announced To Build Offshore Wind Farms

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.

This is the sub-heading.

A £12bn deal to construct wind farms has been described by Prime Minister Andy Burnham as “a vote of confidence for building in Britain”.

These two paragraphs add more details.

Energy company RWE and investment firm KKR have announced the funding, which will deliver the Vanguard West and Vanguard East offshore wind farms off the Norfolk coast.

The wind farms are expected to be fully commissioned in 2030, with offshore construction scheduled to begin in early 2027.

These two paragraphs give Andy Burnham’s view.

“It is great news for billpayers because every turbine we put up is power under British control, not at the mercy of events on the other side of the world,” added Burnham, as he prepared to head to the Cop31 climate summit.

“With coastal communities from Scotland to East Anglia powering Britain’s future, the places that host this energy benefit from the jobs and opportunities that it brings,” he added.

But I’m not sure that all the small print has been disclosed yet.

These are my thoughts.

Germany’s Energy Problems

Germany’s energy problems are that they don’t have enough energy and in particular the don’t have enough green energy.

  • Twenty percent of their electricity comes from coal.
  • Some of that is even the ultra-filthy brown coal.
  • They have closed down all their nuclear stations.
  • In 2025, they imported 22 TWh of electricity.

But they do make good electrical generators, wind turbines and other electrical equipment.

This map shows the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) around the UK.

Note.

  1. The UK EEZ is shown in light blue.
  2. The Irish EEZ is shown in mauve and marked IE.
  3. The small German EEZ is marked DE.
  4. Undoubtedly, the rules by which EEZs were drawn, favoured the UK, and countries like Belgium and Germany didn’t do as well.
  5. The area of the UK’s European EEZ is twenty-three times that of Germany’s whole EEZ, which also includes an area of the Baltic Sea.
  6. Belgium doesn’t do well compared to The Netherlands.
  7. There is a substantial area between the UK and Ireland, which can deliver energy to where it is worth more.
  8. Great Britain and Ireland are surrounded by a large area, that must be worth developing.
  9. There is a convenient corridor, that runs North-West from the German EEZ to the UK EEZ, which could be used to deliver energy to Germany.

Didn’t the UK (and the Irish) do well!

But the Germans are running out of space to put new offshore wind farms, in their small EEZ.

The Two-Pronged German Solution

The first part of their solution, is to create a gas network called H2ercules that will bring hydrogen to any power station and industry, that needs it from the deep-water port of Wilhelmshaven in North-West Germany, where they would import or generate the gas.

Their first plan to bring green hydrogen to Germany, by creating it in the Namibian deserts using solar panels and wind turbines. It would then be transported to Germany as green ammonia in tanker ships and then converted back to hydrogen.

Unsurprisingly, it never got very far.

Finally, they settled on AquaVentus, which is a system of pipes and wires, that uses wind power in the North Sea to create green electricity, which can also be turned into green hydrogen, which is then brought to Wilhelmshaven in Germany to feed H2ercules.

AquaVentus has planned legs to Denmark, Norway and The Netherlands, and North-East Scotland and Humberside in the UK.

In countries like Denmark, Norway and the UK, we will use AquaVentus to send our surplus electricity to Germany.

The Location Of The Norfolk Wind Farms

This map from RWE shows the Norfolk wind farms.

Note.

  1. The Norfolk Zone consists of three wind farms; Norfolk Vanguard West, Norfolk Boreas and Norfolk Vanguard East.
  2. The three wind farms are 1.4 GW fixed-foundation wind farms.
  3. In Vattenfall Selects Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone O&M Base, I describe how the Port of Great Yarmouth had been selected as the O & M base.
  4. Great Yarmouth and nearby Lowestoft are both ports, with a long history of supporting shipbuilding and offshore engineering.
  5. Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft both have a good rail connection to London.
  6. The Sizewell nuclear power complex is a few miles down the cost just North of Aldeburgh.
  7. Sizewell C is using hydrogen to minimise the carbon dioxide emissions from construction.

From my knowledge of the area and tales from bringing home North Sea Oil and Gas, I would feel, that the three Norfolk projects wouldn’t be the most difficult of large wind projects to undertake.

The Location Of Wilhelmshaven

This Google Map shows the location of Wilhelmshaven in North-West Germany.

Note.

  1. Bremen is in the South-East corner of the map.
  2. Bremerhaven is to the North of Bremen.
  3. Hamburg is off the map to the East.
  4. Note the islands along the coast, which feature in the Riddle of the Sands.
  5. Groningen in The Netherlands is in the South-West corner of the map.

Wilhelmshaven is picked out in red.

This larger map shows the sea and coasts between Hull and Bremen.

Note.

  1. Bremen and Bremerhaven are in the North-East corner of the map.
  2. Wilhelmshaven is a dozen miles West of Bremerhaven.
  3. The red arrow to the North of Norwich on the Norfolk Coast is where the Norfolk Vanguard cables will make landfall at Happisburg.
  4. Norfolk Boreas cables will make landfall at South Happisburg.
  5. Hull is in the North-West corner of the map.

From the map, it does appear to me, that the a cable between Humberside and Wilhelmshaven could possibly be routed via the Norfolk wind farms.

Connecting The Norfolk Boreas and Vanguard Wind Farms To The Grid

Google AI gave me this answer.

The Norfolk Boreas and Norfolk Vanguard offshore wind farms (owned and developed by RWE after acquiring the Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone from Vattenfall) connect to the UK National Grid via a major High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission system:

Landfall Point: Power comes ashore via subsea export cables at Happisburgh on the coast of North Norfolk.

Onshore Cable Route: Electricity is transmitted inland through a 60 km underground cable corridor running across three local authority areas (North Norfolk, Broadland, and Breckland District Councils).

 Grid Connection Substation: The underground cables lead to an onshore converter and substation infrastructure adjacent to the Necton substation in Breckland, where it ties into the UK’s National Grid.

Technology & Ownership: The projects use HVDC technology for long-distance transport to minimize environmental and visual impact on the Norfolk countryside compared to overhead lines, backed by multi-billion-pound funding agreements involving RWE and the National Wealth Fund.

My only worry, is will the Norfolk Nimbys allow the 60 km. underground cable to be built?

What Is An Offshore Hybrid Asset?

Google AI defines an Offshore Hybrid Asset like this.

An Offshore Hybrid Asset (OHA)—formerly known as a Multi-Purpose Interconnector (MPI)—is a dual-function subsea power infrastructure that combines offshore wind farm transmission with cross-border electricity interconnection.

How They Work

Instead of individual wind farms building separate dedicated cables to the shore, and countries running point-to-point interconnectors separately, an OHA merges both functions.

Key Examples of Offshore Hybrid Assets

LionLink: A first-of-its-kind OHA project connecting Dutch offshore wind farms (via the TenneT Nederwiek 3 platform) to the Great British grid (landing in Suffolk), providing up to 1.8–2 GW of clean electricity and cross-border trade between the UK and the Netherlands.

Nautilus: A project connecting Belgian offshore wind generators—including links routed via Princess Elisabeth Island (PEI) and the Modular Offshore Grid 2 (MOG2)—to the Great British grid (landing at the Isle of Grain in Kent), delivering up to 1.4 GW of shared wind and interconnector capacity between the UK and Belgium.

Other Integrated Marine Concepts: In a broader renewable context, hybrid marine prototypes combine diverse sources like floating offshore wind with marine solar, or pair ocean wave energy converters with offshore storage and green hydrogen production.

I can see Offshore Hybrid Assets, developed extensively in the future.

GriffinLink

In February 2026, in National Grid, TenneT Germany Launch GriffinLink, A First Of A Find Project To Maximise Offshore Wind, I introduced GriffinLink which was being proposed as a Multi-Purpose Interconnector between the UK and Germany.

Consider.

  • The Germans are building electrolyser capacity at Wilhelmshaven in North-West Germany of up to 1 GW.
  • I estimate that from Norfolk Boreas wind farm to Wilhelmshaven is 230 miles.
  • The Langeled pipeline is a 725 miles between Norway and UK.
  • The Viking Link is a 475 mile electrical interconnector between Denmark and the UK.
  • Neuconnect is a 460 mile interconnector between the Isle of Grain and Wilhelmshaven.

I believe that despite the distances involved, that the GriffinLink could be an Offshore Hybrid Asset between Happisburg in Norfolk and Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

  • It would connect to the three Norfolk wind farms.
  • There would be 230 mile electrical connection to Wilhelmshaven.
  • There would be 45 mile electrical connection to Happisburg.
  • If both electrical connections were 2 GW, then if the three wind farms were at the full total output of 4.1 GW, there would almost be enough capacity to keep all wind farms generating at full capacity.
  • It is known that RWE are developing offshore electrolysis and any spare electricity generated in the Norfolk wind farms could be used to create hydrogen.
  • Any hydrogen would be stored or sent to Wilhelmshaven in a pipeline.

But Vanguard West and East would be fully operational until 2030, so Germany would have a couple of years of slack in which to build the hydrogen generation, storage and transfer infrastructure.

 

 

 

In What Are Offshore Hybrid Assets?, I describe the concept.

  • It would allow hydrogen and electricity to be sent as required to Norfolk or Germany.
  • Infrastructure in the two countries could be sized appropriately.
  • Hydrogen could be generated offshore
  • I believe that batteries could be placed offshore with the wind farm.
  • More wind farms could be added.

I can see Offshore Hybrid Assets, developed extensively in the future.

 

November 12, 2026 Posted by | Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Energy Storage, Finance & Investment, Hydrogen | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment