The German Federal Constitutional Court has ruled that the exclusion of the 580MW Kaikas offshore wind farm from future tenders without compensation was unlawful.
The court found offshore wind legislation, which established the tender regime, was defective as it did not grant developer WPD a right of entry for the project.
The right allows developers to step in to build a project, which they had previously pursued prior to losing development rights to the state with the introduction of the centralised tender regime, under the same terms awarded at an auction.
Other companies were given the compensatory right of entry but not WPD, which subsequently filed the complaint to the federal court.
Kaikas, located some 110km off the German coast, was approved with 80 turbines by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency BSH in 2013.
Speaking after the ruling was made public today, WPD chief operating officer Achim Berge Olsen (pictured) said the company is not satisfied with “financial compensation”.
“After all, we want to build projects and contribute to achieving the new ambitious expansion targets of 20GW by 2030 and 40GW by 2040. The potential of already developed projects like Kaikas should be used and integrated into the existing system (central model),” he said.
Offshore wind association BWO said it is “incomprehensible” that the approved project would not now be built and said there is a chance that the WindSeeG Act may not be changed appropriately going forward.
“The right of entry is the legal compensation for the assigned project rights. The introduction of a second bid component would, in our legal opinion, devalue the right of entry in retrospect, since it considerably reduces the profitability and thus the likelihood of project implementation,” said managing director Stefan Thimm.
The German Energy Ministry pointed out the ruling confirmed other parts of the offshore wind legislation, including the centralised model.
It said that the law will continue to apply after the court’s decision and that a tender planned for next year will continue as planned.
“The Federal Constitutional Court has also decided that the federal government must, under certain conditions, grant project developers financial compensation for the costs incurred for planning and preliminary studies. A new regulation must be submitted by June 30, 2021,” the ministry added in a statement.
“We are now quickly examining this question of the new regulation for financial compensation, including the question of whether the requirement of the Federal Constitutional Court for a new regulation can already be implemented in the current amendment to the Wind-Sea Act.”