Latham & Watkins has advised RWE, one of the world’s leading offshore wind companies, on its acquisition of the UK Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone portfolio from Vattenfall. The portfolio comprises three offshore wind development projects off the east coast of England – Norfolk Vanguard West, Norfolk Vanguard East, and Norfolk Boreas.

The three projects, each with a planned capacity of 1.4 gigawatts (GW), are located 50 to 80 kilometres off the coast of Norfolk in East Anglia. This area is one of the world’s largest and most attractive areas for offshore wind. After 13 years of development, the three development projects have already secured seabed rights, grid connections, Development Consent Orders, and all other key permits. The Norfolk Vanguard West and Norfolk Vanguard East projects are most advanced, having secured the procurement of most key components. The next milestone in the development of these two projects is to secure a Contract for Difference (CfD) in one of the upcoming auction rounds. RWE will resume the development of the Norfolk Boreas project, which was previously halted. All three Norfolk projects are expected to be commissioned in this decade.

The RWE Inhouse Team was led by Reimund von der Höh and Claas Westermann (both M&A Law), Nikolas Hübschen (Corporate & Transactions Law), Alastair Broster (Construction and Procurement Law) and Ferdinand Neuerburg (Competition Law & Energy Law).

The Latham team was led by corporate partners Tobias Larisch and Simon Tysoe, with associates George Venables, Alexander Belk, Saavan Shah, and Lucy McEvoy. Advice on employment matters was provided by counsel Shaun Thompson, with associate Joseph Goddard; on tax matters by partner Helen Lethaby, with counsel James Leslie; and on competition matters by partner Jonathan Parker, with associate James Mathieson.