Statoil has signed an agreement with Polenergia to acquire a 50 percent interest in the two early phase offshore wind development projects in Poland, Bałtyk Środkowy III (BSIII) and Bałtyk Środkowy II (BSII).
The two projects have a planned capacity of 1,200 megawatts with the potential to power more than 2 million Polish households.
BSII and BSIII wind farm areas are located in the Baltic Sea approximately 17 and 25 miles, respectively, from the port of Łeba in water depths of 65–131 feet.
Statoil is already developing the Arkona offshore windfarm together with EON in the German part of the Baltic Sea. The company is also operating three offshore wind farms off the U.K. coast.
Offshore wind already has a strong foothold in Europe with more than 15 gigawatts installed capacity, with a potential to reach between 50 gigawatts and 70 gigawatts by 2030. Polish Baltic Sea has a potential in excess of 8 gigawatts, where the first 4 gigawatts could be in operation by 2030.
Statoil has plans to invest up to €10 billion ($12.4 billion) in profitable renewable energy toward 2030.
