Up to 15GW of wind power capacity is potentially available for power purchase agreements (PPAs) or repowering by 2025 due to the expiry of support after 20 years under the EEG scheme, Patrick Koch, head of origination for central Europe at Norwegian utility Statkraft said.

“We see that after 2020, the first four gigawatts will come into the market as for that volume the EEG subsidy scheme will expire. That volume will drop out of the fixed feed-in tariff (FIT),” Koch told Recharge at the side lines of the Global Wind Summit in Hamburg.

“Afterwards [from 2022 on], until 2025, the next 10 to 11GW will expire. That is on top of the 4GW. That is the potential market for PPAs. There is, or course, [also] a share in this market that will be repowered.”

Statkraft could step in an offer wind farms PPAs in the interim period between the end of FIT support and the start of the actual construction of a repowering project, he explained.

“Every year, more and more capacity will drop out of the FIT and those wind farms will need PPAs and access to the market.”

While construction permits for repowering are difficult to obtain, to organise a PPA is also a complex topic, he added, but possible for every project losing EEG support.

Germany’s Renewable Energies Act (EEG) first came into force in 2000, and at first provided support for renewables via feed-in tariffs (FITs) financed through a supplement on consumers’ power bills for a period of 20 years. In a reform in 2014 the allocation of most support was shifted to competitive tenders.

Statkraft earlier this month was first with announcing it has signed a PPA for post-EEG turbines in Germany, for 42MW of capacity from community wind farms, to supply industrial companies with green power.

The size of projects for PPAs varies from 0.5MW to a “significant size above 10MW,” Koch said.

“The later the wind farms are constructed, the bigger they are usually.”

Wind

Statkraft sees up to 15GW German PPA and repowering potential by 2025