Press releases

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.