Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has released an updated site development plan for expanding offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas to 40GW by 2034 and 70GW by 2045.
The area development plan defines additional wind energy areas with a total output of 40GW in the German North Sea.
Trade group BWO welcomed the division of larger areas and said the lower power density in some zones will help offset wake effects.
However, managing director Stefan Thimm also criticised plans to reduce the available capacity for tender this year by 1GW.
“The industry needs more planning security here,” he said.
“The medium-term outlook is also a step backwards in terms of planning security. While the draft of the land development plan still provided for specifications for areas with a capacity of 60 gigawatts by 2037, the current plan lags behind by a full 20 gigawatts and several years.
“This is a problem for the much-needed supply chain ramp-up and complicates investment decisions. This worsens the chances of more value creation and jobs in Germany and Europe,” said the BWO Managing Director.
The offshore wind farms will be connected via 18 grid connections with a route length of around 2221 kilometers in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In addition, further areas with considerable expansion potential will be identified for the period from 2034 onwards.
“This is based on a comprehensive strategic environmental assessment and is accompanied by far-reaching mitigation measures to protect marine nature during the construction, operation and dismantling of the plants, ” said BSH president Helge Heegewaldt.
“For the areas far from the coast, we would like to stimulate a discussion about how the future expansion of wind energy will be designed there,” added the responsible BSH department head Dr. Nico Nolte.
“We are already implementing the proposed optimization approach for two areas in the new plan and can thus save on a grid connection system.”
The BSH plans to start the next update procedure this year by publishing a preliminary draft. The definition of acceleration areas and infrastructure areas will be taken up again, depending on the implementation of the EU Directive on Renewable Energies into German law.