Airport operator Fraport has signed a long-term agreement with German utility provider EnBW to power Frankfurt Airport using an offshore wind farm.
Under the corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA), EnBW will guarantee 85MW from its 900MW He Dreiht wind farm in the North Sea. The CPPA comes into force in the second half of 2026 for a 15-year term. Reports have estimated that the agreement could offset as much as 85% of the airport’s power consumption.
With the expiry of the previous subsidies under the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), CPPAs are helping to provide developers of renewable energy projects with a reliable source of funding while enabling purchasers to quickly achieve their climate targets.
Frank Mastiaux, the CEO of EnBW, said, “Long-term power purchase agreements are a market response to advancing the energy transition even without government support. PPAs equally benefit purchasers, project developers and the climate. For us, they are the key between renewables-generated power and our major customers.”
The He Dreiht wind farm is scheduled to go into operation in 2025 with around 60 turbines with a capacity of 15MW each. In comparison, Germany’s first offshore wind farm, built in 2011, had a capacity of 2.3MW per turbine.
The green electricity supplied to Fraport will be harnessed to operate the three terminals and several other buildings at Frankfurt Airport. It will also be used to illuminate the apron and four runways, and to charge a fleet of more than 500 electric vehicles (EVs) on the airfield.
Dr Stefan Schulte, Fraport’s CEO, said, “Renewables such as wind and solar are the focus of our climate strategy. They provide the firm foundations for a comprehensive package of measures to systematically reduce our CO2 emissions. Our clearly defined goal is to make Frankfurt Airport carbon-free by 2045. The power sourced from this new offshore wind park will play a central role. As an airport operator, we are especially reliant on a dependable, stable source of power that can be scaled up to meet our growing needs. In EnBW, we have found a strong partner. Compared with the conventional energy sources on which we have previously depended, the new CPPA unlocks potential savings of up to 80,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.”
For over a year, Fraport has produced multiple megawatts of eco-friendly electricity itself, via an on-site photovoltaic array. Further arrays are to be built alongside the runways and on existing and new building roofs. The energy mix also includes power from wind parks where EEG subsidies have expired.
In addition to transitioning to renewables, Fraport’s climate protection strategy foresees improvements to the energy efficiency of existing infrastructure, smart climate control systems and LED technology, and further electrification of the vehicle fleet.