It is a historic moment for the expansion of wind power in Germany and good news for electricity customers: For the first time, the Federal Network Agency has auctioned off four areas for offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas, generating proceeds of 12.6 billion euros. This was announced by the supervisory authority in Bonn on Wednesday. After all, 90 percent of the money raised is to be used to reduce electricity costs. Five percent each flow into marine nature conservation and the promotion of environmentally friendly fishing. “The results confirm the attractiveness of investments in offshore wind energy in Germany,” said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller. “The competition for offshore wind energy is higher than ever.”
In the end, the successful bidders were the mineral oil companies BP and Total Energies, each of which secured two spaces. The commissioning of the wind farms is scheduled for 2030. It was the first time that the Federal Network Agency used an auction to determine which companies were allowed to set up a wind farm. Three areas for wind farms with a capacity of 2000 megawatts each in the North Sea and one area for a wind farm with a capacity of 1000 megawatts in the Baltic Sea near Rügen were auctioned.
The auction that has now been completed was remarkable given the size of the planned wind farms. In one fell swoop, seven gigawatts of capacity were put out to tender – enough to almost double the current offshore capacities in Germany. According to the consulting firm Deutsche Windguard, 1,539 offshore wind turbines with a total output of 8.1 gigawatts were in operation in Germany at the end of 2022. The auction process, which had not previously been practiced for offshore wind power, was made possible because there were several offers for all four areas in which the bidders waived the long-established subsidies for the construction of wind farms from the outset. There were eight interested parties for each of the areas in the North Sea and nine applicants for the area in the Baltic Sea.
The billions in proceeds from the auction are good news for electricity customers. Because the majority of the money is to be used to finance the expansion of the grid and thus ultimately reduce the electricity costs of consumers. However, consumers should not expect too much relief in electricity prices from the proceeds from the auction. Because in view of the estimated network expansion costs of over 100 billion euros, the billions in proceeds from the campaign are more of a drop in the bucket, said an expert. In addition, the electricity cost reduction component is paid in 20 annual installments.