New government initiatives in Germany aimed at accelerating renewables development have not gone far enough to remove hurdles to wind power development in the country, according to a new position paper from trade group VDMA Power Systems.
VDMA said it remains to be seen to whether the newly-proposed regulation with bid values and dynamic procedures for offshore wind will not increase costs for the industry.
The trade group said effective inflation compensation through indexation must be implemented for both onshore and offshore wind energy.
The authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Network Agency is not enough, it said.
“Here, the manufacturers should be appropriately involved in the design,” VDMA said.
It added that answers must be found for the long-term protection of the European wind industry in order to create a fair market environment for non-European manufacturers.
“This can be done via trade and/or fiscal policy instruments that compensate for subsidies from other countries, or through comparable requirements in pre-qualification and participation conditions for tenders,” the trade group said.
It said: “European action is essential here, local value creation requirements in the individual EU member states should be avoided in order to preserve economies of scale for globally active manufacturers.
“The newly introduced qualitative criteria have not been coordinated with the industry and it is difficult to estimate how they will unfold their industrial policy effect.
“Manufacturers and suppliers should also be involved in defining application instructions.”
VDMA said climate, energy and industrial policy must therefore interlock across Europe and set resilient and plannable framework conditions that strengthen the European wind industry.
The increase in tender volumes alone does not send a sufficient signal for profitable European value creation, it said.