Energy ministers from five federal states in northern Germany have urged the federal government to auction extra onshore and offshore wind capacity in the short term and to modernise and expand the country’s power grid.
The ministers of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania signed the joint declaration today at the WindEnergy Hamburg 2018 trade fair.
They called on the federal government to implement its announcement to offer some 4GW extra capacity each for onshore wind and solar as well as some 1.5GW for offshore wind in the German North and Baltic Seas.
A further 4GW a year of onshore wind should be provided over the next decade in order to reach the government’s goal of a 65% share of renewable electricity in 2030, the signatories said.
Offshore wind should have a 20GW target for 2030 and at least 30GW for 2035, the ministers added.
In addition, capacity that was awarded in earlier tenders, but not installed, should be re-auctioned, they said.
“We are worried about the increasingly negative outlook for the German market,” Lower Saxony’s energy minister Olaf Lies said.
“We already lost more than 1000 jobs in Lower Saxony and do not want this trend to continue”, he added.