North Sea and Baltic Sea: New wind turbines should generate much more electricity – economy

If you haven’t seen the North Sea from above for a long time, you won’t recognize the sea in places. The wind turbines are now standing in long rows, with platforms in between from which the electricity flows to land. The Federal Network Agency now counts a total of 1,537 wind turbines in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. When the wind is good, they generate the output of eight very large power plants: 8.1 gigawatts. And that is just the beginning.

There has been a new plan since Friday, submitted by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. In the North Sea in particular, he is defining new areas in which wind farms can be erected in the next few years. If all the areas identified in the plan were actually built on with wind farms, four times as much electricity could be generated there as before: an estimated 36.5 gigawatts of output would be available here. For comparison: All wind turbines on land together currently have a capacity of 58 gigawatts. A “milestone for the 2030 expansion targets” has been reached, the BWO industry association is jubilant. The target is 30 gigawatts. In 2045 there should even be wind turbines with an output of 70 gigawatts in the German sea. Almost ten times as much as today.

The preparatory work on the plan lasted more than a year and is intended to take into account the interests of shipping in particular. Fixed corridors remain for them. The “exclusive economic zone” (AWZ) of Germany, in which the wind farms are to be built, is also geographically unique. Tapering to a point, it juts out into the North Sea. Because of its shape, it is called “Duckbill”. To remain in the picture, most of the defined areas are not in the beak, but in the head behind it, but still far away from the mainland. In the Baltic Sea, too, the new areas are mostly on the edge of the EEZ.

Building new wind turbines has never been easier than it is today

The plan is not only a prerequisite for the construction of wind turbines, but also the necessary power grids. Ideally, the socket in the sea will be ready at the same time as the wind farms. The publication of the plan shows “that we are serious about speeding up planning,” says Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) – “now it’s time to implement it.”

The opportunity is good, because the construction of new wind turbines has never been as easy as it is today. A new version of the Green Electricity Act says that the construction of new plants is of “overriding public interest”. This makes approvals easier. It was only on Thursday that the administrative court in Cologne had rejected an urgent application by the nature conservation association Nabu with reference to this new rule – he had wanted to stop the Butendiek wind farm off Sylt because of the loons found there, a species of bird. In the meantime, the wind farm can continue to run. And at the European level, too, there are currently signs of acceleration: at the beginning of the year, the EU’s “emergency regulation” came into force, which is intended to promote the expansion of renewable energies – as a response to the energy crisis. It also provides for exceptions limited to 18 months. Extensive environmental assessments can thus be omitted in priority areas – including at sea.

There is much to be said for a new run on wind projects – especially since more capacities than ever before are being tendered this year. A total of 8.8 gigawatts of new capacity should find the necessary investors in two rounds of tenders. Of these, seven gigawatts have not yet been tested, so they still have to go through an additional approval process. Originally, a tender was to be used to determine how much guaranteed funding wind turbines would receive for the electricity fed into the grid. But in the most recent rounds, the wind investors waived any funding: The thing pays off that way. It cannot be ruled out that interested parties will soon have to pay to be awarded a contract. The German sea is booming.

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