Germany Pushes Back Offshore Wind Tenders to 2027

The German government has decided to postpone the tenders for the N-10.1 and N-10.2 offshore wind sites, which were planned to be put up for auction this year after not receiving any bids in 2025. The sites are now planned to be tendered out in 2027, with the exact date to be determined by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in the area development plan.

On 28 January, the Federal Cabinet approved an amendment proposed by the governing coalition to suspend offshore wind energy tenders in 2026. This provision is part of a proposed law aimed at accelerating the availability of hydrogen and amending other energy regulations, according to the German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO).

The tenders for the two areas totalling 2.5 GW in capacity, which were not awarded contracts in August 2025, were planned to have been announced at the beginning of February and carried out in June 2026.

According to the draft legislation, the postponement will not affect the achievement of the expansion targets of the Offshore Wind Energy Act, said BWO, which called for a fundamental overhaul of the auction design following the results of the tender last year.

BWO said in August 2025 that the current auction design forced developers to bear risks beyond their control without any protection, and called on the federal government to introduce Contracts for Difference (CfD) along with long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).

The news on the government deciding to postpone the offshore wind tenders came days after BWO and other German wind energy industry organisations again urged the government to quickly reform the tendering system, saying that the failed auction and slow grid connections in 2025 made it clear that the country would miss its offshore wind target for 2030.

The organisation welcomed the federal government’s decision to delay the N-10.1 and N-10.2 tenders to 2027, but warned that the information on the new tender timeline needs to be made available early and that the time until the new tender launch should be used to set up a new auction design, based on CfDs.

“The BWO has repeatedly and early on advocated for a postponement of the auctions. The fact that the cabinet is now following this assessment sends the right signal“, said Hans Sohn, Head of the Policy and Communications Department at BWO. “From our perspective, a further auction of the two sites under the existing rules would have been very risky. We need a new auction design based on bilateral contracts for difference with indexation. This will limit risks and make investment possible again.”

BWO also said the offshore wind industry needed early and transparent information about delays in key grid infrastructure in order to realistically assess risks and avoid negative developments in tenders.

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