Germany’s wind industry has intensified its calls for higher offshore wind targets after less new capacity was added off the country’s North and Baltic Sea coasts last year.

"2019 must be the year of progress in energy policy. Offshore wind energy is of central importance for the achievement of climate protection targets and secures value creation in Germany as an industrial player," representatives of wind groups BWE, BWO, the Offshore Wind Foundation, VDMA Power Systems and WAB said in a joint statement.

"Power production from offshore wind increased by around eight percent in 2018 while costs declined, thus contributing to a stable, low-cost and clean electricity supply. With this balance and the correct and urgently needed initiative by [energy] minister Altmaier to expand the grid, the preconditions are met for a faster expansion.”

Offshore turbines with an output of 969MW were connected to the German grid in 2018, down from 1.25GW in 2017, figures by Deutsche WindGuard for the five wind groups show.

That brought the country’s cumulated offshore wind capacity to 6.38GW at the end of 2018, compared to 5.39GW a year earlier.

In addition, 276MW were fully installed but have not yet fed into the grid, while another 966MW are currently under construction. A final investment decision has been made for another 112MW.

The legally permitted expansion of 7.7GW by 2020 will therefore probably be achieved as planned.

But in order to reach Germany’s target of 65% renewable electricity by 2030, the offshore wind target for that year should be raised to 20GW (from 15GW now), and at least 30GW should be built by 2035, the wind groups demand.

They criticised the fact that the Omnibus Energy Act passed by the Germany parliament in late 2018 does not contain a special contribution for offshore wind, as had been originally planned in a coalition agreement in early 2018.

The coalition parties of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government – the Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) – have commissioned the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency to prepare a scenario framework for offshore wind farms in the 15-20GW range.

But concrete policy measures from this are still completely unclear, the wind groups lamented. They called for the launch of a special tender of at least 1.5GW this year to make use of spare converter capacity.

There is also an urgent need for action regarding a planned offshore wind test field, the groups emphasise.