Original title: German Gov’t Proposes Changes to Offshore Wind Act, Industry Says CfD Mechanism Should Not Be ‘Fallback Option’
The BMWE opened consultation on a draft amendment to the WindSeeG on 10 August. It proposes bilateral CfDs and a 35-year standard operating period for new wind farms, retains the 70 GW by 2045 target, and sets annual tenders from 2 GW to 4.8 GW.
The changes follow a 2.5 GW tender for the N-10.1 and N-10.2 sites that drew no bids in August 2025; the next tender for those sites was pushed to 2027. The draft would also enable cross-border offshore wind projects.
BWO welcomed the inclusion of CfDs but said they should be part of the tender design, not a fallback activated only when a project lacks price hedging. It also criticised the absence of a mechanism for voluntary return and re-tender of projects awarded in the 2023–2025 rounds that have no final investment decision.
Context
The two-stage CfD criticism the reader has seen in earlier reports now gains a concrete legislative draft, with CfDs still framed as a fallback.
