Germany: Request for Raising OW Targets Hits Federal Council Floor

The 964th meeting of German Federal Council, scheduled for 2 February, will review a motion requesting that the Federal Government increases the targets for offshore wind from the current 15GW by 2030 to 20GW by 2030 and 30GW by 2035.

Image source: BARD Offshore (Illustration)
Image source: BARD Offshore (Illustration)

As reported on 24 January, the state government of Schleswig-Holstein had announced bringing the initiative to the Federal Council at the beginning of February. The document submitted to the council on 26 January was signed by the state governments of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the Senate of Bremen.

Together with raising offshore wind targets, the motion also requests further modernisation and expansion of transmission grids that would transmit the offshore wind power to consumers.

The motion to target more offshore wind came in the light of big price drops in the sector. The signatories state that justification for capping the expansion targets to 15GW by 2030, which was introduced in 2014, is no longer valid when looking at the results of last year’s tender in Germany.

The plenum of the Federal Council will refer the application to the specialised committees.