Meagre onshore expansion in early 2023 rings alarm for Germany’s wind power industry
dpa / Der Spiegel
The expansion of onshore wind power in Germany continued to grapple with difficulties also in early 2023 and significantly lags behind the rate needed to fulfil the country’s renewable power targets, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Der Spiegel. A total of 51 new turbines have been licensed nationally since the beginning of January and several states did not issue a license for even a single new installation, Hermann Albers, head of wind power industry group BWE, said. “This is nothing less than a complete failure,” he said, arguing that especially the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg and Saxony have to step up their efforts. “Otherwise the states are willingly putting their industry at risk.” The three southern and eastern German states have for years been lagging behind states in the north in expanding their wind power capacity.
About 550 new turbines with a capacity of 2.4 gigawatts (GW) had been constructed in 2022, according to preliminary figures. However according to BWE, the average duration from planning to licensing of a wind farm routinely takes four to five years. The government plans to install new turbines with a capacity of 10 GW from 2025 onwards to achieve its goal of a renewables share of 80 percent in electricity by 2030. With a new record volume of 12.8 GW in auctioned capacity this year, the government hopes to prepare the ground for a much faster expansion in the coming years.
