Offshore wind is entering a new era of scale, and RWE is playing a central role in that transformation. The second largest offshore wind farm company has more than 20 years of experience, operates 19 offshore wind farms, and is now advancing a development and construction pipeline of more than 4 GW across Europe.

Its strategy focuses on core regions such as the North Sea and Baltic Sea, where some of the world’s largest next-generation projects are taking shape. These efforts reflect RWE’s broader plan to triple its global offshore wind capacity to 10 GW by 2030.

The upcoming RWE offshore wind farms include the 3 GW Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm from RWE’s share, the 3 GW Dogger Bank South project, the 2 GW Lighthouse offshore-to-X development in Germany, the 4.2 GW Norfolk Vanguard West in the United Kingdom, and the 1.4 GW Sofia Offshore Wind Farm.

This article highlights the top five upcoming RWE offshore wind projects. It explains their scale, planned technologies, locations, and the role they will play in RWE’s long-term strategy.

List of Top 5 Largest Upcoming Offshore Wind Farm Projects RWE

Norfolk Vanguard West offshore wind farm

RWE’s Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone is one of the largest offshore wind development areas in the UK, bringing together three projects acquired from Vattenfall in December 2023, which include Norfolk Vanguard West, Norfolk Vanguard East, and Norfolk Boreas. Each project is planned at 1.4 gigawatts and sits 47 to 80 kilometres off the Norfolk coast.

Project execution is now underway. Aker Solutions and Siemens Energy have received full notice to proceed for Norfolk Vanguard West and East, marking the start of detailed engineering, procurement, and construction. Fabrication of the Vanguard West offshore platform began in April 2025 at Drydocks World in Dubai, and work on the Vanguard East platform will follow in the second quarter of 2025.

Survey work is progressing in parallel. GEOxyz is conducting a drop-down video survey at Vanguard East to support environmental assessments, while DEME and G-tec are launching a nearshore geophysical campaign at Vanguard West. These surveys, together with the ongoing engineering programme, support the build-out of the wider 4.2 gigawatt Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone.

Dogger Bank offshore wind farm

Dogger Bank Wind Farm, located 130-190 km off the northeast coast of England, is being built in three phases - Dogger Bank A, B, and C. Together, they will form the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a combined installed capacity of 3.6 GW. Each phase delivers 1.2 GW of generation using some of the most powerful turbines available, enough to supply around six million homes annually once fully operational.

The project is being developed through a joint venture of SSE (40%), Equinor (40%), and Vårgrønn (20%), with SSE leading development and construction and Equinor responsible for long-term operations over its 35-year lifespan.

In November 2025, Dogger Bank reached a major milestone as Seaway7 completed installation of all 277 foundations across the three phases, marking the end of foundation works for the full project. An independent assessment released the same month projects that Dogger Bank will contribute GBP 6.1 billion to the UK economy and support thousands of jobs over its lifetime.

Each turbine can power 16,000 homes and offset emissions comparable to removing 9,000 cars from the road annually, and it’ll be the UK’s largest single source of renewable energy once fully commissioned.

Dogger Bank South offshore wind farm

The Dogger Bank South projects, DBS East and DBS West, form one of the largest planned offshore wind developments in the UK. The sites lie more than 100 kilometres off the northeast coast of England in the shallow waters of the Dogger Bank area.

Together they are expected to deliver about 3 gigawatts of capacity, enough to meet the annual electricity demand of roughly three million UK homes. The projects entered the UK pipeline in early 2023, when RWE secured Agreements for Lease from The Crown Estate.

Masdar acquired a 49 percent stake later that year, and the partnership was finalised in early 2024, with RWE retaining a 51 percent share and leading all phases of development, construction, and operation. The projects reached a key milestone in July 2024 when their Development Consent Order application was accepted for examination, which concluded in July 2025.

A consent decision is expected within six months. RWE reported in November 2025 that geotechnical investigations at DBS East had finished, following an extensive offshore campaign by Fugro. The programme now shifts to onshore laboratory testing and analysis, which will inform foundation and design work for the next stage of development.

Lighthouse offshore-to-X wind farm

The Offshore-to-X project is a joint effort by RWE and BASF to link large-scale offshore wind generation with industrial decarbonization in Germany. The partners plan to develop a site in the German North Sea that is expected to be constructed after 2030, giving the project space to add new capacity beyond existing national targets.

The wind farm is designed to produce up to 2 gigawatts of green electricity each year, totaling about 7,500 gigawatt-hours. That power will support BASF’s Ludwigshafen complex and supply the planned hydrogen production facilities.

RWE will develop, build, and operate the wind farm, while BASF will take an ownership stake and secure long-term access to its output. The project is positioned to meet Germany’s additionality requirements because it sits outside the 20-gigawatt pipeline planned for 2030. Electricity from the site will connect to the mainland through Lower Saxony’s transmission grid, enabling delivery to BASF’s industrial operations and future electrolysis capacity.

Sofia offshore wind farm

The Sofia Offshore Wind Farm is RWE’s largest single offshore project under construction, delivering 1.4 gigawatts from a site in the central area of Dogger Bank in the North Sea. The wind farm lies 195 kilometres off the UK’s northeast coast and covers 593 square kilometres.

Power from its 100 Siemens Gamesa 14-megawatt turbines will be collected on a single offshore converter platform and transmitted to shore through a high-voltage direct current cable that makes landfall in Redcar, Teesside.

A new onshore converter station is being built near Lackenby, where Sofia will connect to the national grid seven kilometres inland. Onshore enabling works began in 2021, followed by converter station construction and cable installation in early 2022.

Offshore activity began in 2023, and the completed project will be operated from RWE’s hub in Grimsby. Each turbine will stand 252 metres tall, making Sofia one of the most technically advanced offshore wind farms currently being built. As of late 2025, more than half of the total 100 SG 14-222 DD wind turbines are in place, installed by Cadeler’s vessel Wind Peak.

Conclusion

RWE’s upcoming offshore wind farms, including Dogger Bank, Dogger Bank South, Lighthouse, Norfolk Vanguard West, and Sofia, represent one of the most ambitious wind project pipelines in the global wind sector. Together, they will add well over 10 GW of new capacity, strengthen supply chains in the UK and Germany, and accelerate the transition to large-scale, next-generation offshore wind technologies.

These developments sit alongside a wide range of ongoing activities: construction of more than 4 GW across Europe, continued operation of 19 offshore wind farms, and active innovation programmes from recyclable blades to environmental-impact research. Onshore, RWE continues to expand through repowering and targeted growth markets, supported by more than 9 GW of installed wind capacity worldwide.

RWE maintains a fully funded pipeline, targets 10 GW offshore and 14 GW onshore by 2030, and an overall ambition of more than 65 GW of green capacity for future developments.

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