Germany Boosts H1 Wind Capacity

 

The industry also expects new installations in 2017 to be at a similar level because operators will take advantage of transitory rules for power tariffs before legal changes for an auction-based system take effect.

 

The additions in the six months, counted in MW, exceeded those built a year earlier by 73 percent, said engineering group VDMA and wind energy association BWE in a statement.

 

Operators clinching approvals for new turbines this year and go on to build them in 2017 and 2018 are still entitled to 20 years of fixed revenues previously agreed.

 

From 2017 onwards however, they must win tenders aimed at establishing who is the lowest cost operator at the most suitable site to obtain construction permits and run the wind plants under recent legislative changes.

 

"We assume that most of the projects that are approved this year will materialise in 2017, and that additions in 2018 will be realised from those (operators) having won in the 2017 auctions," said Matthias Zelinger, managing director of VDMA Power Systems.

 

The Berlin government's long-term target for more onshore wind is 2,800 MW a year as it gears up for a future free of nuclear and fossil fuels in a process known as energy transformation (Energiewende).

 

Germany's total installed onshore wind power capacity at the end of June stood at 43,544 MW, taking account of the dismantling of 161 MW of turbines and 308 MW from new turbines at existing sites in Jan-June.

 

This exceeded the installed total at the end of December by 4.5 percent.