The German federal maritime and hydrographic agency (BSH) has chosen the Fraunhofer IWES institute, among others, to conduct a preliminary assessment of soil conditions at new clusters in the North and Baltic Sea for the first bidding round of regular offshore wind auctions.

After auctioning off a combined 3.1GW in 2017 and 2018 in offshore acreage from sites pre-developed by project developers or utilities in interim tenders, Germany in the next decade will hold regular auctions for wind at sea for areas pre-developed by the state of at least 700MW per year under the so-called ‘central model.’