Germans appealing for 2 GW offshore wind tender

Germany’s WAB, Greenpeace Energy and H2BX are calling for the special 2 GW offshore wind tender to be implemented quickly and that areas be put out to tender before the end of the year.

In a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier, the parties claim that long-term framework conditions are urgently needed for offshore and onshore wind, as well as green hydrogen in the spirit of the European Green Deal.

The three organizations also repeated that the offshore wind expansion target for 2035 should be at least 35 GW.

“We welcome the fact that the Federal Government is again showing itself capable of acting in the spirit of the energy transition,” said WAB Managing Director Heike Winkler.

“However, in order to ensure long-term employment, climate protection and value creation with the domestic wind industry and the still developing industry around ‘green’ hydrogen in line with the ‘European Green Deal’, it is not enough to hand over responsibility for distance rules for onshore wind to the federal states and to make slight adjustments for the expansion of offshore wind.”

The signatories advocate that after the economic damage caused by COVID-19, the necessary economic stimulus packages should be used to create immediate and sustainable employment by initiating the necessary investments in climate protection.

According to the partners, the energy transition will make Germany less dependent on energy imports and offer small and medium-sized enterprises great economic opportunities locally and on the global export markets.

In July 2019, BWE, BWO, Stiftung OFFSHORE-WINDENERGIE, VDMA Power Systems, and WAB urged the German government to raise the expansion targets and set up a reliable framework for the development of offshore wind.

A few months later, the offshore wind industry associations repeated the call for the special 2 GW tender.