January 2025 |
260104 |
ENERGY CHRONICLE |
As EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) announced on January 15, it will not be pursuing the Mona and Morgan offshore wind projects in the UK. The main reason for the withdrawal is that the two projects did not receive government funding through so-called “Contracts for Difference” in the recently completed allocation round of the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
In combination with other factors beyond its control, this refusal of government funding meant that the projects were no longer economically viable according to EnBW's standards. The unmet criteria included increasingly deteriorating conditions such as significant cost increases in the supply chain, higher interest rates, and ongoing project implementation risks.
EnBW's discontinuation of the Mona and Morgan projects will be reflected in the 2025 annual financial statements in the amount of €1.2 billion through value adjustments to the investments. The unscheduled write-down is outside adjusted EBITDA and has no cash effect. The adjusted EBITDA range of €4.8 to €5.3 billion forecast for the 2025 financial year therefore remains unchanged. The 2025 annual financial statements will be published on March 25.
The two offshore projects, Mona and Morgan, are located approximately 22 to 59 km off the coast in the Irish Sea and are expected to have a total capacity of up to 3 gigawatts. EnBW had been developing them since 2021 together with the energy companies JERA (Japan) and bp (UK), which contributed their activities in this area to the joint venture Jera Nex BP (JNBP) in July 2025.
The cooperation agreement between EnBW and JNBP also provides for the construction of the Morven wind farm, which would be located off the coast of Aberdeenshire in the North Sea and would also have a total capacity of up to 3 gigawatts.
One day later, on January 16, EnBW also announced that it was selling its shares in the Mona offshore wind project to its partner Jera Nex BP. Neither partner would pursue the sister project Morgan any further. However, they would continue to work together on the Morven project in Scotland. “Morven is still in an early stage of development,” the company explained. “We will decide at a later date how to proceed here.”
EnBW currently owns the He Dreight (960 MW), Hohe See (497 MW), and Albatros (112 MW) offshore wind farms in the North Sea, as well as Baltic 1 (48.4 MW) in the Baltic Sea. This amounts to a total of 1617 MW. The installed nominal capacity of onshore wind turbines across the group is 1323 MW.