Offshore wind expansion picks up but no turbines constructed in first half of 2022
Clean Energy Wire
The German government’s ambitious offshore wind power expansion targets triggered a construction increase in the first half of 2022, although no turbines were built. According to a press release from the German wind energy association (BWE), construction picked up at the Kaskasi and Arcadis Ost 1 offshore wind projects. However, the association said the industry urgently needs policy support and skilled workers if the German government’s targets of 30 GW capacity by 2030, 40 GW by 2035 and 70 GW by 2045 are to be achieved. It criticised the recently amended Wind-on-Sea Act, which introduced a tender system, for making construction more complicated and expensive.
The German government has initiated a large renewable energy reform - part of which was passed by parliament in July 2022 - which it hopes will lead to a renewed expansion boom of wind and solar power installations. The coalition increased capacity targets to almost double the share of renewables in the power system to 80 percent by 2030 and to make Germany less dependent on imported fossil fuels.
