Editorial April

The news from Berlin that Federal Minister of Economics Reiche would like to have more wind farms built in the next few years with additional rounds of tendering is gratifying, especially since the building of these was not possible in recent years due to the lack of approved wind farms able to participate in the tendering rounds. But the discussions regarding the regulation of wind energy and other renewable energies also show that increasing the tender volume as an individual measure falls short. If, at the same time, plans are drawn up to modify the grid connection conditions for wind farms in such a way that they lose the right to the feed-in and remuneration of electricity in grid congestion areas, this will lead to the financing of wind farms in these regions becoming more difficult and thus more expensive – perhaps even impossible. At the same time, the Renewable Energy Sources Act must be given a fundamentally new methodology before the end of this year, as the approval of the EEG by the EU under state aid law is only valid until the end of 2026. At the moment, the industry must therefore urgently appeal to the federal government to dovetail these different regulatory levels, tenders, grid connection and remuneration rules sensibly and consistently – otherwise nothing will be achieved.

There is also a great and urgent need for action in offshore wind energy, as the last round of tenders in 2025 finished without any bids and in January the planned round of tenders for 2026 was suspended. The German government has announced a tender with a new auction mechanism, but not before 2027. From the industry’s point of view, this comes much too late, as investments and investment decisions will be suspended during this interval. Incidentally, Denmark developed a new auction mechanism in just a few weeks, when it also experienced an auction without bids last year.

There is therefore an urgent need for action in both onshore and offshore wind energy, because otherwise dozens of gigawatts of wind power will not be installed in time or, indeed, at all. This would mean a lack of very large and essential electricity quotas required for further decarbonisation, e.g. in the hydrogen economy or for direct electrification of the mobility sector, heat generation or industry. Relying unilaterally on gas-fired power plants for the electricity sector leads to a huge and expensive dead end due to major dependencies, supply problems and price risks, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz currently shows. The expansion of “domestic” wind energy can be the most important driver for truly efficient decarbonisation and a significantly more resilient German economy. Wind energy can do so much more when it is regulated wisely!