Germany has issued a tender to develop 958 MW of offshore wind capacity across three areas in the North and Baltic Seas. 658 MW projects are planned for the North Sea, while the remaining 300 MW is allocated for schemes in the Baltic Sea. The capacity is expected to be operational by 2026.
The tariff cap for the projects has been set at 0.073 Euro per kWh. The Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), opened the procurement round which is awaiting proposals by September 1, 2021. As per the press release, legal admission rights are in place for two of the three areas by companies that had originally planned offshore wind farms at the specific locations. The proposals will be selected on the basis of the lowest funding requirement. The winning bidders will be awarded grid connection capacity along with the right to seek planning approval from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) for the development of the offshore wind areas. After the two tenders in 2017 and 2018, a tender based on the “central model” are now being held for the first time.
In line with German’s aim of 20 GW of offshore wind turbines in operation by 2030, the Federal Network Agency plans to award about 9.7 GW of offshore wind projects by 2025.
In January 2021, Dutch transmission systems operator, TenneT has announced that it will launch tenders for the development of grid connections with a transmission capacity of 2 GW. The project will ensure supporting infrastructure for the upcoming offshore wind projects in Europe.