Ahead of German crisis meeting, industry repeats call for more offshore wind

A ‘wind energy crisis meeting’ will be held on 5 September 2019, convened by the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier, to discuss wind energy onshore and offshore. The Federal Association of Windfarms Offshore (BWO), Offshore Windenergie Foundation, Wind Energy Network, Hamburg Renewable Energy Cluster, Wind Energy Agency, Windcomm Schleswig-Holstein and VDMA Power Systems have jointly stated the government urgently needs to agree a further 2 GW of capacity.

“The offshore wind industry is ready and able to realise a special contribution of up to 2 GW of installed capacity by 2026,” they said, noting that transmission system operators “have repeatedly confirmed the feasibility of this special contribution… and support this approach.”

The industry associations said that, in the North Sea, 660 MW of capacity could be built, and in the Baltic, the area in which the Gennaker project (1 GW) was recently approved could be supplemented by a further 300 MW that could be brought forward.

“In order for the special contribution to be effective as a short-term measure, the offshore wind industry considers it necessary to create the legal conditions for tenders for these areas by late 2019/early 2020,” the associations said.

“Commissioning the projects could then start in 2023 and the windfarms could be realised sooner than currently planned, in 2024 in the North Sea and 2025 in the Baltic.”

Similar demands have been issued by the industry associations on a number of occasions in the last 12-18 months.