Press releases | German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation

Press releases

Press releases

17. January 2018
Energy transition to be accelerated – Expansion of offshore wind energy up to 2020 progressing according to plan

“With a total output capacity of more than 5.3 GW, offshore wind turbines make an increasing contri-bution to the security of Germany’s energy supply. They deliver clean power almost around the clock, every day of the year,” industry representatives from AGOW, the BWE, the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, VDMA Power Systems and the WAB explained in Berlin during the presentation of the latest expansion figures for offshore wind energy. “The expansion of offshore wind energy is run-ning to plan.”
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21. September 2017
SCiBreak officially announced as new PROMOTioN project partner

Arnhem/Berlin, 21 September 2017. On 11.09.2017, SCiBreak became the 35th project partner of the PROMOTioN consortium. SCiBreak is a Swedish company founded in 2014 to commercialise new technology for interrupting electric current.
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11. September 2017
Cuxhaven Appeal 2.0 - Northern German states and offshore wind sector call for increased offshore capacity

Economic and energy ministers of several northern German states are calling on the federal government to facilitate the deployment of offshore wind energy.Ministers and senators from Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg and Bremen have presented the Cuxhaven Appeal 2.0 in conjunction with industry representatives.
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20. July 2017
Offshore wind energy: Two new offshore wind farms come online - Capacity expansion is essential

In the first half of 2017, 108 offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of 626MW fed power into Germany's national grid for the first time. Therefore as of 30 June 2017 a total of 1,055 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity to 4,749MW are on the grid. These are encouraging half-year figures, according to Arbeitsgemeinschaft Offshore-Windenergie (AGOW), Bundesverband WindEnergie (BWE), Stiftung OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE, VDMA Power Systems and WAB e.V. The industry expects a total increase of approximately 900MW for 2017 as a whole. In the first half of 2017, offshore wind energy produced 8,480GWh of electricity, already roughly 70% of last year's total output.
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13. April 2017
Bundesnetzagentur publishes auction results

The Bundesnetzagentur published the results of its first auction for offshore wind energy projects on 13 April 2017. The dramatically reduced prices of these bids, maxing at 6.0 cents per kilowatt-hour, primarily reflect the rapidly falling costs in the industry, resulting from industrialization and a steeper learning curve. A majority of the projects chosen today are to be realized with no financial support at all; the lowest bid selected came in at 0.0 cents per kilowatt-hour. This means that due to the future expansion of offshore wind farms, electricity customers will hardly need to pay for any additional EEG-funded support for new offshore wind farms after 2020.
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14. February 2017
German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation launches extended English version of its website

Today the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation launched an extended English version of its website, offering international visitors all its available information and services at www.offshore-stiftung.de/en.
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19. January 2017
Offshore Wind Power: Expansion Forges Steadily Ahead - Federal Government Inhibiting Further Momentum

New offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 818 megawatts went online in 2016. The industry views this expansion as positive and expects that, combined with optimised turbine technology and operating concepts, this will also lead to cost reduction in the forthcoming tendering processes in Germany. This momentum will however be upset by the reduced expansion targets after 2020 that are part of the 2017 Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). These reduced expansion targets will also lead to a number of missed opportunities for the industry.
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8. July 2016
Renewable Energy Act (EEG) amendment endangers value creation and employment in the offshore wind energy industry

The offshore sector criticises the planned reduction in annual development of offshore wind power after 2020 as part of the most recent Renewable Energy Act (EEG) amendment. Contrary to the original plans, only 500 MW (previously 730 MW) in the years 2021 and 2022 and a mere 700 MW annually from 2023 to 2025 will be tendered. This corresponds to an effective reduction of almost one third (31.5%) compared to the originally agreed expansion in the years 2021-2022.
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29. June 2016
Acceleration and cost reduction potential for on and offshore grid expansion

A new study shows significant acceleration and cost reduction potential for offshore HVDC grid connections and recommends improved grid utilization for short-term elimination of network bottlenecks on land. A deceleration of offshore network connections would not be appropriate, according to the study.
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