Germany set to miss 2030 offshore wind expansion target – industry
Clean Energy Wire
Germany will likely miss its target for offshore wind power expansion by 2030, wind energy consultancy Deutsche WindGuard said in a status report commissioned by the main industry associations. "As of mid-2024, offshore wind energy projects totalling almost 27 GW are expected to be able to feed into the grid by the end of 2030," the report said. "This means that the legal expansion target of 30 GW will probably not be reached." In the first half of 2024, 36 new installations with a combined capacity of 377 MW and an average rotor diameter of 186 metres began feeding electricity into the grid, bringing the total to 1,602 offshore turbines.
Germany has made offshore wind power a key pillar of its plans for an almost fully renewable electricity supply by 2035. It is auctioning the rights to build major wind parks to the highest bidders, and two recent tenders resulted in bids of several billion euros. The World Energy Council (WEC) recently warned that the country's expansion plans could clash with similar plans of its neighbours around the North Sea. The government has set preliminary targets to increase offshore wind power capacity to 40 GW by 2035 and 70 GW by 2045 (up from almost 8 GW in 2022).
