Schleswig-Holstein Wants More Offshore Wind

The state government of Schleswig-Holstein has called for an additional expansion of Germany’s 2030 and 2035 offshore wind capacity targets.

To this effect, Germany’s northernmost state intends to bring an initiative to the Federal Council at the beginning of February for the offshore wind targets to be raised from the current 15GW by 2030 to 20GW by 2030 and 30GW by 2035.

“Offshore wind is maturing. In order to achieve the global climate goals, we need more wind energy at sea,” the state’s Energy Transformation Minister Robert Habeck said.

“The offshore industry needs a long-term perspective through a continuous expansion in the home market, in order to secure the know-how, the innovative power and the cost reduction potential in Germany.”

With a greater expansion of offshore energy, the shore-side electricity grids would have to be further modernized and expanded at the same time, the ministry said.

“The basic prerequisite for a successful energy turnaround is the speedy grid expansion. Wind energy at sea must also be able to reach the consumption centers in southern Germany. Therefore, efforts need to be stepped up to improve the acceptance and transparency of network development and to further European grid development,” Habeck said.

At the end of 2017, Germany had 5,332MW of installed offshore wind capacity. The country’s offshore wind farms generated 15.97TWh of electricity, 47% more compared to 10.83TWh of electricity generated in 2016.

In 2016, Schleswig-Holstein generated 35TWh of electricity, 19.2 TWh of which came from renewable sources, including 5.8 TWh produced by offshore wind farms.

The state currently has 1.7GW of installed offshore wind capacity, with the Meerwind Süd/Ost, Nordsee Ost, Amrumbank West, Butendiek, Dan Tysk, and Sandbank offshore wind farms currently in operation. The total offshore connection capacity in Schleswig-Holstein currently available as part of the grid connection systems in operation amounts to 2.13 GW.