Wind power: turning away from subsidies

The prevailing mood at the WindEnergy Hamburg international trade fair shows how the industry is reinventing itself: the era of subsidies is coming to an end, Kathrin Witsch writes in the Handelsblatt. “We expect that power purchase agreements (PPAs) will be the future,” Commerzbank’s project finance expert Fabian Schlüter told Witsch. The wind power sector is experiencing a revolution, Witsch says. Prices for wind power have fallen since the introduction of a tender system to determine payments which means pressure on turbine manufacturers has increased, Witsch says. PPAs offer an opportunity for these companies as they secure regular payments from large businesses like Amazon or Microsoft, the article says.

Find a CLEW factsheet on wind power in Germany here.