Germany's Federal Network Agency has issued tenders for four areas with a combined 7 GW of offshore wind capacity in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Three areas (N-11.1, N-12.1 and N-12.2) are located in the North Sea, each with a capacity of 2,000 MW, and one area (O-2.2) with a capacity of 1,000 MW is located in the Baltic Sea.

The North Sea region is located approximately 120 kilometers northwest of the island of Heligoland, and the Baltic Sea region is approximately 25 kilometers from the island of Rügen. Commissioning of the offshore wind farm is scheduled for 2030. In order to achieve the 30 GW expansion target, an auction will now be held and the winning bidder will have to carry out preliminary surveys before taking responsibility for building the wind farm itself, the Federal Network Agency said.

The state conducts preliminary surveys of the site, such as analyzing the marine environment, seabed and wind conditions, and oceanographic conditions, so the area auctioned does not exist and is therefore called a non-centralized pre-qualification area. The auction will be conducted using a so-called dynamic bidding process, which will allow Germany to differentiate and choose between multiple bids with a bid value of zero.

If multiple bids result in the lowest price bid, the bidder with the highest willingness to pay wins the contract. This arrangement of negative bids has been criticized by the wind industry in the past. In this dynamic process, 90% of the proceeds will be used to reduce electricity costs, 5% will be used for marine nature conservation, and the other 5% will be used to support environmentally friendly fishing. Interested parties must submit bids by June 1.

After completion of the bidding process, the successful bidder will have the right to apply to the competent Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Office for planning approval for the development of the offshore wind farm. In addition to the announced tender, the Federal Network Agency will activate further offshore wind energy areas by March 1, 2023. These areas of focus have been centrally pre-qualified by BSH with a total capacity of 1800 MW.Editor/XingWentao