Mercedes-Benz has struck a preliminary agreement with an offshore wind provider to supply electricity equivalent to 25% of its demand in Germany from 2027 onwards, a spokesperson for the carmaker said on Monday.
The energy provider, which the spokesperson declined to name, will reserve the energy for Mercedes-Benz from an offshore wind park under construction in the Baltic Sea.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and spiking gas prices have stepped up the urgency for German industry, which consumes another 30% of the country's energy, to move away from fossil fuels, with tools like carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates no longer enough to meet the new goal of energy independence.
The carmaker, which previously said it aims to cover 70% of its energy demand with renewables by 2030, said in April it was sourcing all its electricity for Germany from green sources from 2022 onwards under purchase power agreements with Statkraft and Enovos.
It is also planning to build a wind farm in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony by 2025 that is able to produce a hundred megawatts of electricity, equivalent to over 15% of the carmaker's annual demand in Germany.
(Reuters - Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; editing by David Evans)