German Offshore Wind Parks Face Delays

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland)--Construction of Germany's offshore wind parks will be delayed due to complications in connecting turbines to the power grid. The issue is primarily caused by problems with the construction of transmission lines and transformer stations.

E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) and RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany) have expressed their intentions to suspend investments in wind projects unless obstacles are removed. RWE's Nordsee Ost and WindMW's (Bremerhaven, Germany) Meerwind wind parks have already encountered setbacks due to the delays to the HelWin 1 Offshore platform. E.ON is facing similar setbacks for its Amrumbank West wind park, which is due to be connected via the HelWin 2 offshore platform. Other projects that are experiencing difficulties due to delays to the BorWin 2 Platform include Bard's (Bremen, Germany) Veja Mate windfarm and Windreich's (Wolfschlugen, Germany) Global Tech 1 offshore windfarm.

Fritz Vahrenholt, the chief executive officer of RWE's Innogy unit for renewable energy, fears that investment activities in German offshore windfarms will most likely be discontinued unless a proper solution to these circumstances is found.

These delays challenge the government's plan to install 10,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore turbines by the end of this decade. The German government is confident that these issues will not affect its intention to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022 and increase the share of renewable power to 35%. This requires an installed capacity of approximately 11,000 MW of offshore wind power in the North Sea. The connecting cables previously commissioned by TenneT already account for 5,300 MW. By 2022, additional offshore power connections of 6,000 MW are planned.

Transmission system operator TenneT informed the German federal government that the construction of grid connections for offshore windfarms in the North Sea is no longer possible at the present pace and under current conditions. TenneT has proposed a programme of necessary measures that will facilitate the energy transition. The measures include a binding long-term offshore plan, the clarification of legal liability, and the creation of a German direct-current grid operator.

Juergen Maass, a spokesman for Germany's environmental ministry, said that the government's longer-term objective of 25,000 MW of offshore wind generators will be met by 2030.

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