Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised TotalEnergies on its agreements to acquire a 50% stake in OranjeWind, a 795 MW offshore wind farm under development in the North Sea in the Netherlands from German renewables developer, RWE.
To tackle the challenges of fluctuating power generation from wind and flexible energy demand, OranjeWind involves a combination of first-of-a-kind smart innovations and large-scale investments, which will be used in combination to manage power intermittency and grid congestion issues and realise the required match between supply and demand. Investments will include large-scale electrolysers, electric boilers and battery storage, while innovations include a subsea pumped hydro energy storage system, offshore floating solar technology and subsea lithium-ion battery storage systems. When developed, OranjeWind will be one of the most advanced offshore energy projects in the world.
Total Energies will dedicate its share of the renewable electricity production from this project to power 350 MW electrolyser projects. These will produce about 40,000 tons per year of green hydrogen for the decarbonisation of TotalEnergies’ refineries in Northern Europe, resulting in a reduction of approximately 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
This transaction also marks TotalEnergies’ entry into the Dutch offshore wind market.
Construction of the wind farm is scheduled to start in 2026, with full commissioning expected in early 2028.
This transaction builds on Clifford Chance’s market-leading Energy & Infrastructure and Corporate M&A practices and significant offshore wind and green hydrogen expertise.
The core Clifford Chance team in Amsterdam comprised Liesbeth Buiter, Jeroen Thijssen, Philip Walsh, Pieter Leefers, Hansuya Reddy, Sabine van den Heuvel, Johanneke Butijn, Wouter Fonteijn, Niels Kuil, Maria Boerman and Liselotte Hommels.
The wider cross-border team included Andrea Karkotis, Chris Verheesen (Energy & Infrastructure), Stern Flik, Cile Arnoldy (Tax), Sanne Blankestijn (Employment), Serkan Özel and Esmée Oldenkamp (Notary) in Amsterdam; Leonhard Rudolph and Jonathan Forrest (Construction) in London; Katrin Schallenberg (Antitrust), Epistimi Oikonomopoulou (EU Regulatory) and Apolline Coly (Energy & Infrastructure) in Paris, Dimitri Slobodenjuk, Caroline Scholke, Marion Meier (Antitrust) and Yannick Niedergethmann (Corporate) in Düsseldorf, and Marta Michalek-Gervais and Kamila Hora (Antitrust) in Warsaw.
