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The energy will come from multinational energy company RWE’s offshore wind farm in the North Sea
Vodafone Germany has announced a new 10-year deal to use energy company RWE’s renewable energy to power their 5G network, starting in 2026.
The Power Purchase Agreement will see Vodafone purchase 250-GWh of energy annually from RWE, enough energy to permanently power 12,000 of Vodafone’s mobile base stations.
The power will be generated by RWE’s ‘Kaskasi’ offshore wind farm in the North Sea, comprising 38 wind turbines.
As part of the deal, Vodafone has also built and activated an offshore 5G base station in the sea to enable those working on the wind farm to connect with colleagues and family. In the future, the 5G station will allow enable inspection drones to be controlled in real time via mobile communication, to detect potential technical problems in the wind turbines.
“We are bringing modern 5G to the sea to support the generation of wind energy in Germany,” said Vodafone Germany CEO Philippe Rogge in the announcement’s press release.
“And we use wind energy from the sea to make mobile communications in Germany more sustainable – because if we want to support the energy transition with digitalization, then we ourselves have to set a good example and therefore operate our network from 100 percent renewable energy sources,” he continued.
“We are pleased to be able to support Vodafone in implementing its ambitious climate protection goals,” added Ulf Kerstin, chief commercial officer of RWE supply & trading. “With our green energy solutions, we are helping to ensure that the energy transition is also making progress for our industrial customers.”
In related news, in April last year, it was announced that Vodafone Germany was accelerating its 5G deployment along the country’s railways, activating its 5G SA network on over 15,000km of railway lines – covering half of the country.
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