Germany added a record 4.87GW in new net onshore wind capacity in 2017 – bringing the cumulative capacity of wind on land in Europe’s largest economy to 50.78GW – as developers rushed to build projects under the old feed-in tariff system amid a change to tender-based support.

The gross expansion last year was 5.34GW, but 467MW in mature onshore wind capacity was idled at the same time, thus lowering the net expansion, according to data by Deutsche WindGuard commissioned by Germany’s wind energy federation BWE and the VDMA Power Systems group that represents manufacturers.

Repowering further increased its share, reaching 952MW of the overall expansion.

If 1.25GW in new offshore capacity is added, Germany’s overall onshore and offshore wind fleets grew by 6.12GW last year.

The wind groups expect onshore expansion to still reach 3.5GW this year, as final projects under the old FIT-based system can be built by year-end. From 2019 on, only wind projects that won in tenders, which started last year, are entitled to support.

The wind industry fears a lull in onshore additions from 2019 on due to exemptions granted to so-called citizens’ energy cooperatives that are allowed two more years to build their projects.

As in 2017 those community power projects were allowed to participate in wind auctions without providing a permit in accordance to German sound emission rules, they won more than 95% of the 2.82GW tendered off, raising alarm bells across the industry.

The government for the first two of four onshore auctions this year has scrapped the privileges for community power, but hasn’t taken a decision for tenders after that.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government currently is only a caretaker administration, as coalition negotiations after inconclusive elections in September remain complex and fragile.

“The legislator must urgently repair the EEG (Renewable Energies Act). A permit according to the federal emission protection law (BlmSchG) must be demanded immediately and permanently for all bids,” VDMA Power Systems managing director Matthias Zelinger says.

“To secure a continued expansion and make climate protection possible, additional capacity needs to be tendered off and allocated volume that isn’t being built must come back into the tendering volume.”

Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU and the Social Democrats (SPD) in preliminary coalition talks last week suggested tendering off an additional 8GW in onshore wind and solar capacity, but it is yet unclear whether more concrete coalitions talks that are about to start will actually deliver a stable government.

“We welcome this announcement and suggest to align the set-up of the individual tendering rounds with the volume that has actually been permitted,” says BWE president Hermann Albers.