“Auctions for wind parks begin”

The introduction of auctions for new wind power projects off the German coast will lead to a significant fall in costs for the industry, Andreas Mihm and Hemut Bünder write in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Foreign companies – as well as major German energy providers - are eager to take part in the tender processes, making an underbidding of the maximum feed-in tariff of 12 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) highly likely, the authors say. While German energy companies innogy and E.ON said they would not try to win tenders at any cost, Sweden’s Vattenfall won an earlier tender in the Netherlands with an offer of 4.99 cents per kWh, Mihm and Bünder explain. Martin Neubert, from Danish competitor Dong, said prices in German auctions are not expected to fall as much because authorities required more investment components.

For more information, see the CLEW dossier The reform of the Renewable Energy Act.