Norwegian renewable energy producer Statkraft announced on April 20 that it has secured a new PPA with German cement producer OPTERRA. Under this latest agreement, Statkraft will provide OPTERRA with 300GWh of electricity generated by wind farms and PV power plants from 2022 to 2032. This deal is similar to an earlier one that the two companies struck in December last year. Under that agreement, Statkraft will provide OPTERRA 120GWh of electricity generated by four onshore wind farms from 2022 to 2025.
With the latest deal, two of OPTERRA’s factories will receive renewable electricity starting this April. The two factories are respectively located in the German municipalities of Karsdorf (in the state of Saxony-Anhalt) and Wössingen (in the state of Baden-Württemberg). Statkraft said that 15GWh based on wind power will be delivered to the factories from April 2022 to June 2023. Then, around 30GWh based on PV will be delivered to the factories every year from July 2023 to December 2032.
On the whole, the two deals will benefit three of OPTERRA’s factories with respect to the reduction of carbon footprints. The PPA that was arranged in December last year covers not only the two aforementioned factories but also another one located in the municipality of Kall (in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia). With the second and latest PPA, 20% of the electricity consumed by the factories in Karsdorf and Wössingen will be sourced from renewables.
Statkraft pointed out that it is now able to immediately synergize its wind farms and PV power plants so as to provide sufficient electricity to satisfy its customers’ demand. The company also noted that PPAs allow renewable energy projects to eventually leave the EEG scheme that has been established by the German government for the provisioning of feed-in tariffs. In fact, the wind farms that will be supplying electricity to OPTERRA’s factories are unsubsidized.