Offshore wind industry welcomes delayed auction in Germany, urges further reforms

The offshore wind power industry in Germany has welcomed a government decision to postpone the next round of auctions for the technology after warnings that bidders might shun the tender due to investment uncertainties. The next round of auctions, which was initially scheduled to be announced in February for a date later in 2026, will now be held next year, according to industry group BWO. Concerns in the industry were based on the previous round of auctions for offshore wind in August 2025, when no bids were submitted.

“In our opinion, holding another round of auctions under the current set of rules would have been very risky,” said Hans Sohn, head of communications at BWO. However, the lobby group said that waiting until next year would be too long and that changes to the auction design could be implemented more quickly.

The government’s decision comes a day after BWO and other industry groups called for urgent measures to speed up the implementation and planning of new wind farms. In 2025, just 41 offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of 0.5 gigawatts (GW) were connected to the grid, bringing the total installed capacity to 9.7 GW. “Delays in grid connection and a lack of bidders in the auction in August 2025 mean that the expansion target of 30 GW by 2030 will be missed,” said BWO.

Current estimates regard a capacity of 20 GW as more likely by the end of the decade, the association added. To accelerate the buildout and make reaching the target possible by 2032, a new auction design that provides investors with greater certainty about future returns and the industry with longer planning horizons are needed, the lobby group said. “The government now needs to reform the current auction system fast and from the ground up in cooperation with the industry.” The new auction design should exclude negative bids and instead offer a business model that takes the European market framework into account, the group added. One option would be two-way contracts for difference, it said. Instead of maximising the profitability of individual projects, the focus should be put on speeding up the implementation of wind farms and improving cost-efficiency in overall energy supply.

The industry call came just one day after Germany’s government hosted a major offshore wind summit that brought together several European government leaders at the North Sea Summit in Hamburg, where they committed to an ambitious and coordinated offshore wind expansion push. Offshore wind energy is widely regarded as a backbone of the energy transition thanks to its reliable output, but in recent years has has faced low expansion volumes and investor reluctance in many European countries.