Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022 edition - Flipbook - Page 88
88
Hogan
Lovells
Germany
concluded between the current governing
parties in December 2021 is aiming to cover
80% of electricity demand by renewable
energies in 2030.8 Offshore wind energy is
expected to play an important role in
achieving this target.
With an overall reform of the Offshore Wind
Energy Act, a crucial step for the expansion
of wind energy has already been taken in
2020. The reform has increased the cap from
15 GW to 20 GW, as targeted for 2030, and
the character of this instrument has been
changed from an expansion cap to an
expansion target without cap, i.e. the
installed capacity may exceed 20GW by
2030.
In the coalition agreement, the current
government has set itself even higher
expansion targets: Offshore wind energy
capacity is expected to increase to at least 30
GW in 2030, 40 GW in 2035, and 70 GW in
2045.9 Stakeholders welcome these
ambitions, but at the same time call for a
quick legal implementation, especially for an
update of the Offshore Wind Energy Act
(Windenergie-auf-See-Gesetz). 10
In this regard, the federal ministry for
economic affairs and climate action
(Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und
Klimaschutz – BMWi) is planning to take
immediate legal action to boost the
expansion of wind. To this end, the ministry
announced a comprehensive reform of the
legal framework as early as April 2022.11
As an important step in this direction, the
ministry has initiated a legislative procedure
for the renewal of the Offshore Wind Energy
Act with a draft bill in March 2022.12
With this amendment the ministry intends
to increase the tender volumes for offshore
wind energy to between five and seven GW
in the years 2023 to 2026. From 2027, four
GW are to be tendered annually. In addition,
the draft includes a new, two-tier tendering
procedure. Whereas pre-surveyed sites will
be tendered via twenty-year Contracts for
Difference (CfD), the tendering procedure
for non-pre-surveyed sites is based on
qualitative criteria. The criteria in addition
to payment are the energy output, the
compatibility with nature conservation and
species protection, and the recyclability of
the rotor blades.
With this distinction and the inclusion of
such criteria, the compatibility of the
expansion of offshore wind with nature and
species conservation is brought into line.
In addition, the draft includes the following
measures, among others, to accelerate the
expansion: The bundling of environmental
8
Koalitionsvertrag 2021 zwischen SPD. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen und FDP, page 56, available at: https://www.bundesregierung.de/resource/
blob/974430/1990812/04221173eef9a6720059cc353d759a2b/2021-12-10-koav2021-data.pdf?download=1.
9
Koalitionsvertrag 2021 zwischen SPD. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen und FDP, page 57, cf. note 1 above.
10 30 GW Offshore-Windenergie bis 2030: Zielvorgabe ist gut – jetzt Ausbau beschleunigen und verstetigen, available at: https://www.
wind-energie.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/30-gw-offshore-windenergie-bis-2030-zielvorgabe-ist-gut-jetzt-ausbaubeschleunigen-und-verstetige/.
11 Habeck macht Tempo beim Klimaschutz, available at: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/habeck-tempo-klimaschutz-101.html.
12 available at: https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Artikel/Service/Gesetzesvorhaben/entwurf-eines-zweiten-gesetzes-zur-aenderung-deswindenergie-auf-see-gesetzes-und-anderer-vorschriften.html).