“Wind parks step it up”

Wind power analysts believe prices for offshore power generation in Germany are going to drop significantly in the near future, Jörg Staude writes in Frankfurter Rundschau. Swedish energy provider Vattenfall’s award of a contract to build the offshore park “Kriegers Flak” in the Danish North Sea for 4.99 cents per kilowatt hour caused a stir in the industry, but a “substantial learning and therefore cost curve” traversed by producers means that lower prices will become the new standard, Andreas Wagner from the German Offshore-Wind Energy Foundation told the newspaper. A greater number of, and better performances by, turbines will bring down the price of offshore wind power. But Germany’s complicated provisions for the sector in the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) prevent prices from falling to the Danish level, Staude explains.

Read the article in German here.