Hogan Lovell OffshoreBook 2023 230809 OnlinePDF - Flipbook - Page 114
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Germany
2.3 Incentives for investments
The principles of the incentive scheme
for sources of renewable energy including
OWTGs are provided for in the Renewable
Energies Act (cf. sec. 19-27). The main incentives are financial support via market
premium or feed-in tariff payments. Other
instruments, for example the issuance of
certificates of origin, may likewise be regarded as investment incentives.
(a) Market premium/feed-in
tariff payments
The Renewable Energies Act provides for
two basic incentives/payments schemes
applicable for all electricity generators
using renewable energy: a market premium ("MP") payment on the basis of a
(one sided) contract for difference concept and a feed-in tariff ("FiT") payment.
In respect of OWTGs, according to the
Offshore Wind Act (cf. sec. 14) both
payment incentives only apply in case of
non-pre-investigated sites while for preinvestigated sites the Offshore Wind Act
does not allow for subsidy payments.
In respect of OWTGs on non-pre-investigated sites, the main support scheme
applicable is the MP payment since the
FiT payment only serves as a backup/
default payment (Ausfallvergütung) for
OWTGs.
The MP support scheme requires, inter
alia, that the operator of the OWTG itself
sells the produced electricity to a third
party via "direct marketing". The third
party would typically be a direct marketer but may also be an end consumer.
By definition, direct marketing is not
given if the electricity is consumed in the
immediate vicinity of the OWTG and is
not transmitted through a grid.
The calculation of payments in both
schemes, MP and FiT, is based on a
specific "applicable value" (anzulegender
Wert – "AW") for the particular OWTG.
For OWTGs the applicable value "AW"
is determined by the Federal Network
Agency in the tender process (see section 2.2). For each site advertised the bid
with the lowest value wins the tender.
The successful bid value then is the AW
value. In case the dynamic tender procedure applies, i.e., the successful bidder
will be obliged to make a payment to the
state, the AW is zero.
The MP per kWh is only paid for each
kWh which is sold under a PPA and actually fed-in into the grid.
The MP is calculated on a yearly basis
according to the formula MP = AW – JW,
with "JW" being the actual annual average value of the market value of electricity from OWTGs which results from the
spot market price.
The amount of FiT per kWh basically
equals the AW value minus 0.4 ct/kWh.
However, the full FiT as a regular payment incentive only applies for small
