Evonik has signed a ten-year deal to buy about 120 GWh a year of solar power from two Vattenfall parks in Schleswig-Holstein. The terms are described as fixed. What they are fixed at has not been disclosed, and in Germany's solar PPA market that is the rule rather than the exception.
Key takeaways
- Vattenfall signed a power purchase agreement with Evonik, announced on 16 February 2024, to supply about 120 GWh of solar electricity a year in Germany for ten years on fixed conditions.
- The Evonik PPA is supplied from two Vattenfall solar parks in Schleswig-Holstein, Silberstedt and Juliusburg and Krukow, with a total capacity of 120 MWp; Leap records 123 MW of capacity offtaken.
- Vattenfall's solar output for Evonik equals the annual demand of around 35,000 households and is intended to displace more than 50,000 tonnes of CO2 a year from the German power mix.
- The Vattenfall agreement is Evonik's first solar PPA in Leap; its other recorded contracts are offshore wind, two 15-year deals with EnBW for He Dreiht and a ten-year deal with RWE for Kaskasi.
- Enerdatics records 31 solar PPAs in Germany announced between July 2023 and December 2024; none discloses a tariff, and ten years is the most common term among the 23 that disclose one.
What does a fixed ten-year price give Evonik?
Certainty over a large slice of its power bill. A fixed-price PPA sets the cost of each megawatt hour for the life of the contract, whatever happens to the wholesale market. For a chemicals group, which uses electricity as a production input, that turns a volatile cost into a known one for a decade.
The contract is offsite. The solar parks are in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's most northerly state, and the power reaches Evonik through the grid rather than through a direct connection. In an offsite PPA the buyer pays the agreed price for the output and the supplier delivers it through the wider system.
The record also describes the cooperation as aimed at displacing more than 50,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. That gives Evonik a measurable emissions figure to set against its electricity use, alongside the price protection.
How much solar does 120 GWh a year actually take?
About 120 MWp of panels in northern Germany. Leap records the two parks at 120 MWp combined and the capacity offtaken at 123 MW. Divide the annual volume by the panel capacity and each kW of panels is expected to produce roughly 1,000 kWh a year. That is modest by southern European standards, which is the price of building solar at the latitude of Schleswig-Holstein.
That ratio is also why the contract is quoted in GWh rather than MW. Evonik is buying a volume of energy, and the volume depends on the weather, not on the nameplate. Leap's record does not say whether the PPA is pay-as-produced or shaped to a delivery profile, so who carries the risk of a dull summer is not disclosed.
Why is Evonik adding solar to an offshore wind book?
Because the two technologies produce at different times. Offshore wind in the North Sea tends to be strongest in the colder months. Solar produces only in daylight and peaks in summer. A buyer holding both has a supply that is spread across the day and the year more evenly than either on its own.
Evonik's recorded contracts show the pattern. It signed a 100 MW, 15-year PPA with EnBW for the He Dreiht offshore wind farm in November 2022 and a further 50 MW, 15-year PPA for the same project in February 2023. Vattenfall's solar deal followed in February 2024. Thirteen days later Evonik signed a ten-year PPA with RWE for the Kaskasi offshore wind farm. At ten years, the solar contract is shorter than the He Dreiht deals and exactly matches Kaskasi.
Enerdatics records 31 solar PPAs in Germany announced between July 2023 and December 2024, and not one discloses a tariff. All but one of the 31 are offsite contracts like Evonik's, with power delivered through the grid rather than from panels on the buyer's own site. Of the 23 that state a term, nine run for ten years, the most common length. Five of the seven contracts with utilities and traders that state a term run between two and four years, while eight of the 11 with industrial buyers run from ten to 15. Vattenfall's own German solar PPAs in the set are all ten years: Deutsche Telekom for the 76 MW Tutzpatz park in September 2023, Evonik in February 2024 and Wieland Group for the 46 MW Nauen park later the same month. At 123 MW, the Evonik contract is the second largest German solar PPA by recorded capacity announced in 2024, behind Encavis' 208 MW agreement with LyondellBasell.
What does the Evonik PPA signal for German corporate solar?
It shows heavy industry building a portfolio of contracts rather than signing one. Salzgitter, the steelmaker, signed five German solar PPAs in 2024 in Leap's records, with Octopus, Merbitz Solar, Iberdrola, RWE and Energiekontor, on terms from seven to 15 years. Evonik's mix of solar and offshore wind is a smaller version of the same approach. Both companies also hold offshore wind contracts, as covered in Enerdatics' analysis of the seven contracts behind EnBW's He Dreiht and in the timeline of RWE's Kaskasi contracts.
For Vattenfall, it confirms a standard product. Three German solar PPAs in five months, all on ten-year terms, with buyers in telecoms, chemicals and metals. That consistency suggests a contract template rather than a series of one-off negotiations, though the terms behind it remain private.
The open question is the one the market keeps unanswered. Germany's corporate solar contracts now carry names, volumes and terms. The price, the number every buyer and seller most wants to compare, stays out of the public record.
Frequently asked questions
How much solar power will Vattenfall supply to Evonik?About 120 GWh a year for ten years, from two Vattenfall solar parks in Schleswig-Holstein with a combined capacity of 120 MWp. The agreement was announced on 16 February 2024.
What price is Evonik paying for Vattenfall's solar power?The price has not been disclosed. The contract is described as running on fixed conditions for ten years.
Does Evonik have other renewable PPAs in Germany?Yes. Leap records two 15-year offshore wind PPAs with EnBW for He Dreiht, for 100 MW and 50 MW, and a ten-year offshore wind PPA with RWE for Kaskasi.
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