Editorial May

For the first time in relation to an invitation to a tender for onshore wind energy, far fewer offers were submitted than the tendered capacity volume. As a result, the basic principle of an invitation to tender – namely competition for a limited tendered commodity, in this case wind farm capacity – was not provided. Already, gloomy predictions are being made in Berlin that there are not enough approved wind farms for the planned invitations to tender.

However, there is a very simple explanation for what has happened. With poorly defined and in some cases unclear tender conditions, many wind farm project managers are in no hurry to obtain all the necessary approvals for their projects. The German federal government has failed to remove the easily avoidable benefits for citizens’ energy projects and has also not initiated any separate tenders for onshore wind (or solar energy). As a result, the situation with regard to the planned tender rounds in 2018 and 2019 is not clear. With this in mind, it is understandable that project managers are not in a hurry to further develop their projects.

The situation is absolutely counter-productive for the progress of the energy transition. In the coalition agreement, an increase in the expansion target for renewable energies to 65% in the electricity sector by 2030 was agreed. Many members of our Renewable Energy Hamburg Cluster are extremely surprised by the irresponsible handling of the situation and by the serious and destructive contradiction between what the coalition agreed and what is actually being done!