© Adobe Stock/Romolo Tavani

When the wind blows at our coasts, wind energy installations at sea produce large quantities of environmentally-friendly wind power. These large wind farms are rarely visible to the naked eye from the coast and so most people have never seen them. Operating unnoticed, they work to harness the power of the sea wind and convert it into renewable energy. Germany is already the second largest market for offshore wind energy worldwide after Britain. In total, around 7.5 gigawatts (GW) was installed at sea at the end of 2019. Last year, 160 new offshore wind turbines with an installed capacity of around 1.1 gigawatts (GW) were added and there's still potential for blowing this figure up further. The conditions for offshore wind turbines are particularly favourable in the North and Baltic Seas. There are plenty of suitable areas, the wind blows more constantly than on land, the costs of technology – once high – have fallen sharply in recent years, and acceptance among the general public is high. The German government wants to be able to use 20 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity as early as 2030. It therefore decided to significantly raise Germany's previous expansion target of 15 gigawatts, setting out these plans in the 2030 Climate Action Programme. This is because a key component in efforts to advance the energy transition and meet the climate targets for the energy industry is to expand renewables efficiently, in parallel to the grid, and to do so in an increasingly market-based manner. An upcoming revision of the Offshore Wind Energy Act will create an improved legal environment for this work, and will also set out the higher expansion target.

Five gigawatts more: offshore agreement enables expansion target for wind power at sea to be raised

To set about the task of realising a higher wind power target for Germany, as detailed in the government's 2030 Climate Action Programme (in German only), the German government has come together with the German coastal states and the transmission system operators involved (50Hertz, Amprion and TenneT) to sign a joint offshore agreement (in German only). The agreement sets out specific milestones and target dates (in German only) for determining the areas at sea and closely coordinating the approval and construction of the connection lines and the auctions for new wind farms. The most important points covered by the agreement are described below.

To generate more electricity from offshore wind energy, a greater amount of space is needed at sea. According to the offshore agreement, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie) is to do the necessary work to locate this space and designate possible locations for new wind farms in an area development plan by the end of 2020. The higher volumes of electricity will also need to be transported to the mainland and on to consumption centres. The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has already confirmed the construction of the necessary lines for connecting the new wind farms in the 2019 Network Development Plan. A total of 14 new offshore connection lines are to be built between 2021 and 2030. The coastal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein now want to complete the necessary approval procedures soon. The transmission system operators have agreed to complete the offshore connection lines and put them into operation for when they are needed. This will enable the electricity from the future wind farms to be transported directly onto the mainland.

From 2029, an innovative technology will be used for transporting electricity onshore. This is based on the use of a new kind of underground cable which will be able to transport twice the amount of power compared to the conventional 320 kV technology using a single cable system. The plastic-insulated underground DC cables have a voltage of 525 kilovolts (kV) and could halve the number of connection lines required in the North Sea. Their use would reduce the impact that transporting offshore electricity has on nature, for example on the Wadden Sea UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

The construction of a number of new offshore connection lines has already been scheduled, while further lines will also be needed in order to meet the 20-gigawatt target. Specific timetables and managers have been put in place for all the projects. The project milestones include the start and end of the planning procedures, the start of construction, and commissioning. These supplement the auditing of onshore electricity grid expansion conducted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) reports on ongoing progress in the context of its existing monitoring of the expansion of the electricity grid. More information about the state of offshore connection work and grid expansion on land can be found at www.netzausbau.de. Going forward, the target dates will be regularly reviewed as part of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy's auditing of grid expansion. This will enable delays to be detected at an early stage and ensure appropriate measures are taken more quickly, in the same way as the auditing of grid expansion projects that was conducted by the federal and state governments to good effect in 2019.

Agreement on rules for distance for onshore wind turbines and on the lifting of the solar cap

The vice-chairpersons of the parliamentary parties belonging to the government made an agreement on 18 May 2020 that provides clarity on the rules for onshore wind installations. Instead of enforcing uniform nationwide rules on distances between wind turbines and residential buildings, the Länder are to be given the opportunity to stipulate minimum distances themselves through the introduction of a clause to this effect in the Federal Building Code. Pursuant to this clause, in future, the federal states will decide for themselves whether to make use of the 1,000-metre distance regulation for wind turbines or to stipulate deviations in their respective state-level law. The new proposal is intended to give federal states planning leeway when designating areas for future wind development. There is also good news for photovoltaics (PV). The PV cap, which has so far limited expansion, is to be lifted very soon. The cap limits the promotion of PV systems up to 750 kilowatts to a total capacity of 52 gigawatts (GW).