New German Government Urged to Ensure OW Planning and Investment Security

The offshore wind energy sector called on the future German government to ensure planning and investment security for continued expansion of offshore wind in Germany.

“Offshore wind energy is an essential building block of the energy transition. The new federal government thus needs to develop a clear framework soon so the industry can make final investment decisions for the target of 6.5 gigawatts of offshore wind farms by 2020 in the coalition negotiations,” Thorsten Herdan, vice-president of the OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE Foundation and head of VDMA Power Systems, stated at an EWEA Offshore 2013 press conference on Wednesday.

A new study from the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES), which investigated offshore wind energy as it relates to the energy sector as a whole, emphasizes the importance of offshore wind. Because of its excellent power production properties, offshore wind will ensure supply security, system quality, and affordable overall costs in the future energy system, the study says.

Wind turbines at sea can provide electricity almost every single hour of the year with about as many operating hours as conventional power plants; they produce power about 340 days each year, and that power production can be forecast fairly accurately. The turbines are much better equipped to provide operating reserve than other fluctuating renewable energy sources and therefore play a key role in stabilizing the power system.

In addition to energy sector benefits, offshore wind has also become a powerful macroeconomic force. “Over the last few years the German offshore industry has developed into a sector of largely mid-sized companies, with about 18,000 jobs and a total sales volume of about six billion euro. At the moment, however, the industry is dealing with empty order books because the lack of clarity regarding future policy makes investment decisions almost impossible,” says Norbert Giese, vice-president of offshore development at REpower and vice-chairman of Wind Energy Agency Bremerhaven.

In order to make up for the delays already affecting offshore wind expansion, the industry calls for a clear legal framework to be set up as soon as possible. “Feed-in tariffs should be guaranteed to offshore wind farm operators along with binding promise of their connection capacity. Investors can then be certain that a wind farm, once commissioned, will indeed receive the compensation that has served as the basis for the many years of planning and construction. This is the only way to actually achieve the goal of 6.5 Gigawatts discussed in the coalition negotiations,” explains Georg Friedrichs, vice-president of offshore wind development at Vattenfall.

Long planning and construction timelines are standard for offshore wind farms; from the initial approval process to financing, planning and the first power exports to the grid, up to ten years could go by for these large-scale “renewable power plants at sea.” In addition, consistent offshore wind expansion could decrease the cost of offshore wind power by about a third over the next ten years, according to a recent study from Prognos and Fichtner.

Press release, November 21, 2013; Image: Fraunhofer IWES