Germany set to retire 20 GW of wind power by 2023 - Renewable Energy Federation head

Due to the end of their 20-year life span of guaranteed support payments, about 20 gigawatt (GW) of wind power capacity in Germany will be retired by 2023 as their operation is no longer profitable, Simone Peter, head of Germany’s Renewable Energy Federation (BEE), says in an interview with Energie & Management magazine. “This will have substantial consequences,” Peter says, arguing that the special auctions for wind and solar power promised in the government’s coalition treaty should be carried out urgently. This is necessary for Germany to achieve its 2030 climate goals, and to increase the share of renewables in its overall power consumption to 65 percent by that year, the former Green Party head argues. According to Peter, Germany needs a national CO₂ price to make the cost of fossil energy sources visible and improve social participation in the planning of renewable power expansion, and must not mull changing the feed-in priority for renewables to better manage grid bottlenecks.

Read the interview in German here (paywall).

See the CLEW factsheet German onshore wind power for more information.