Energy minister Peter Altmaier after a crisis meeting on the decline of German wind power installations has signaled the government’s willingness to raise the country’s 2030 target for offshore wind beyond the currently envisaged 15GW.
Altmaier avoided to tell any concrete figure, but said he fully approves a statement by Olaf Lies, the energy minister of the state of Lower Saxony, who spoke directly before him. Lies had said a discussion about a cap for offshore wind must end and the 2030 target needs to be lifted to 20GW.
“The colleague [minister Lies] has expressed that very committedly, and I stand behind everything; regarding the cap [at 15GW], I have said that as far as offshore is concerned, a consensus can be reached over a moderate increase,” Altmaier said.
But the minister stressed that there also needs to be acceptance among local resident in north-western Germany, where new high-voltage transmission lines have to be built for electricity from wind farms at sea to be transported to consumers.
Markus Tacke, chairman of manufacturers’ group VDMA Power Systems and also chief executive of Siemens Gamesa, at a press conference little later welcomed Altmaier’s hint at lifting the offshore cap.
“As far as concrete targets have been addressed [at the crisis meeting], I am glad that this has been done publicly, and that the offshore cap is a matter of debate and that there is an intense thinking of lifting it towards 20GW,” Tacke said.
“For us that is an important signal for the entire sector, in order to bring forward innovation and employment.”
Altmaier Thursday had invited several dozens of representatives from the wind industry, environmentalist groups, manufacturers and even anti-wind groups, to a crisis meeting on how to counter a current collapse in German wind installation figures.
