“Watershed in energy policy”

The energy industry hovers between shock and sensation since it has become clear that several companies are ready to build offshore wind power plants without any support payments, Frank-Thomas Wenzel writes in Frankfurter Rundschau. The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) already debated when the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), Germany’s central legal instrument for expanding renewable energy generation, can be abolished, Wenzel explains. But the bidders’ calculation hinges on two assumptions, he adds: Danish company Dong Energy and German utility EnBW assumed that maximum production capacity of offshore windmills will jump from the current 5 megawatt up to 15 megawatt over the next few years. At the same time, they hoped for rising wholesale power prices, which was only going to happen if excess power plant capacities vanished and CO₂ emissions were made significantly more expensive, Wenzel writes.

For background, see the CLEW article Operators to build offshore wind farms without support payments and the CLEW factsheet Germany ponders how to finance renewables expansion in the future.