Germany proposes extending offshore wind support

GERMANY: Germany's conservative-Social Democrat coalition government has proposed extending by two years the financial support wind farm developers and operators can get in developing wind projects.

Germany's Parliament the Bundestag (Picture credit: Katrin Neuhauser)

Discussions on environmental and energy policies have proposed a compression model which could see offshore companies receiving a higher feed in tariff (FIT) during the first eight years, helping companies meet upfront investment costs, and a lower FIT for the remaining 12 years.

Financial help will be extended to projects to the end of 2019, previously the deadline was year-end 2017.

The Social Democratic Party has indicated this could free up EUR12 billion of investment.

Under new German government policy, offshore wind could face a 6.5GW cap to 2020, 35% less than the 10GW set out in Germany's 2010 national renewable energy action plan, proposals from the coalition’s working energy group show.

In the document it stated, beyond 2020, an average two projects a year, each with about 400MW, will be commissioned over the period to 2030 to reach 8.9GW in 2023 and around 15GW by 2030.