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Wind power in Germany

Wind farm in Panketal
German electricity by source in 2023
Brown coalHard coalNatural gasWindSolarBiomassNuclearHydroOilOther
  •   Brown coal: 77.5 TW⋅h (17.7%)
  •   Hard coal: 36.05 TW⋅h (8.3%)
  •   Natural gas: 45.79 TW⋅h (10.5%)
  •   Wind: 139.77 TW⋅h (32.0%)
  •   Solar: 53.48 TW⋅h (12.2%)
  •   Biomass: 42.25 TW⋅h (9.7%)
  •   Nuclear: 6.72 TW⋅h (1.5%)
  •   Hydro: 19.48 TW⋅h (4.5%)
  •   Oil: 3.15 TW⋅h (0.7%)
  •   Other: 12.59 TW⋅h (2.9%)
Net generated electricity in 2023[1]
Wind park in Bernburg, consisting entirely of Enercons
Erection of an Enercon E70-4 in Germany

Wind power in Germany is a growing industry. The installed capacity was 55.6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2017, with 5.2 GW from offshore installations. In 2020, 23.3% of the country's total electricity was generated through wind power, up from 6.2% in 2010 and 1.6% in 2000.[2]

More than 26,772 wind turbines were located in the German federal area by year end 2015, and the country has plans for further expansion.[3][4] As of the end of 2015, Germany was the third largest producer of wind power in the world by installations, behind China and the United States.[5] Germany also has a number of turbine manufacturers, like Enercon, Nordex and Senvion.

In the first half of 2021, with 22% a contribution to German electric generation, wind was the second most important contributor, following coal, which was the top producer, with 27%. In 2020 wind was the top generator.[6]

The German Federal Government has enacted plans to expand offshore wind energy, with targets of 30 gigawatts by 2030, increasing to 70 gigawatts by 2045. This move is part of a strategy to enhance the country's renewable energy portfolio and reduce dependence on energy imports.[7] To achieve these goals, the government is implementing measures to streamline planning and approval processes for wind energy projects.[8]

Onshore wind power

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Since 1995, onshore wind energy has been an important and major industry in Germany.[citation needed] In 1995, the gross production of onshore wind power was 1,530 GWh. By 2019, gross production from onshore wind power was over 101,000 GWh, allowing Germany to power about a fifth of the country from wind.[9] Larger onshore installations are in the works, which could possibly see a larger percentage of wind energy powering Germany.[citation needed] Germany is also notable for having some major wind turbine manufacturers based there, such as Enercon in Aurich, Senvion in Hamburg, and Nordex in Rostock.

Offshore wind power

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Offshore wind farms in the German Bight
See also: List of offshore wind farms in Germany, List of offshore wind farms in the North Sea, and List of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea

Offshore wind energy also has great potential in Germany.[10] Wind speed at sea is 70 to 100% higher than onshore and much more constant. As of 2007, a new generation of 5 MW or larger wind turbines which are capable of making full use of the potential of wind power at sea had been developed. This made it possible to operate offshore wind farms in a cost-effective way.[11]

On 15 July 2009, the first offshore German windturbine completed construction. This turbine is the first of a total of 12 wind turbines for the alpha ventus offshore wind farm in the North Sea.[12]

Following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Germany's federal government began work on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization, with a particular focus on offshore wind farms.[13] Under the plan, large wind turbines were to be erected far away from the coastlines, where the wind blows more consistently than it does on land, and where the enormous turbines won't bother the inhabitants. The plan aimed to decrease Germany's dependence on energy derived from coal and nuclear power plants.[14] The German government wanted to see 7.6 GW installed by 2020 and as much as 26 GW by 2030.[15]

A major challenge was the lack of sufficient network capacities for transmitting the power generated in the North Sea to the large industrial consumers in southern Germany.[16]

In 2014 410 turbines with 1747 megawatts were added to Germany's offshore windparks. Due to not yet finished grid-connections, only turbines with combined 528.9 megawatts were added to the grid feed at the end of 2014. Despite this, the gigawatt offshore windpower barrier was reportedly breached by Germany around the end of 2014[17] During 2015 offshore windpower was tripled to over 3 gigawatts capacity, signalling the growing importance of this sector.[18]

At the end of 2019, Germany had installed 1,469 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 7.52 GW. Capacity in the North Sea reached 6.44 GW, capacity in the Baltic Sea reached 1.08 GW. In total, 25.8 TWh of power were produced in German offshore wind parks in 2019.[19]

The German Federal Government, alongside the state of Lower Saxony and private sector, has pledged €300 million to finance a 30-hectare expansion of the Cuxhaven offshore terminal, with construction mandated to start before planning permission expires in February 2025. This expansion is part of a broader initiative to boost Germany's offshore wind capacity from 8.3 GW to 30 GW by 2030 and 70 GW by 2045, requiring an estimated 200 hectares of additional port area by the end of the 2020s to support new wind farm constructions.[20][21]

Government support

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Since 2011, Germany's federal government has been working on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization,[22] with a particular focus on offshore wind farms.[14]

In 2016, Germany decided to replace feed-in tariffs with auctions from 2017, citing the mature nature of the windpower market being best served in this way.[23] These auctions have resulted in some future offshore wind farms to be operated at market prices and receive no subsidy.[24]

As part of measures to increase wind power installations and usage, the Scholz cabinet adopted a law requiring Germany to set aside 2% of its total land area by 2032 for wind energy use.[25]

Energy transition

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Main article: Energy Transition in Germany
See also: Nuclear power in Germany and Renewable energy in Germany
Energy transition scenario in Germany

The 2010 "Energiewende" policy has been embraced by the German federal government and has resulted in a huge expansion of renewables, particularly wind power. Germany's share of renewables has increased from around 5% in 1999 to 17% in 2010, reaching close to the OECD average of 18% usage of renewables.[26] Producers have been guaranteed a fixed feed-in tariff for 20 years, guaranteeing a fixed income. Energy co-operatives have been created, and efforts were made to decentralize control and profits. The large energy companies have a disproportionately small share of the renewables market. Nuclear power plants were closed, and the existing 9 plants will close earlier than necessary, in 2022.

The reduction of reliance on nuclear plants has so far had the consequence of increased reliance on fossil fuels and on electricity imports from France. However, in good wind Germany exports to France; in January 2015 the average price was €29/MWh in Germany, and €39/MWh in France.[27] One factor that has inhibited efficient employment of new renewable energy has been the lack of an accompanying investment in power infrastructure (SüdLink) to bring the power to market.[26][28] The transmission constraint sometimes causes Germany to pay Danish wind power to stop producing; in October/November 2015 this amounted to 96 GWh costing 1.8 million euros.[29]

The German states have varying attitudes to the construction of new power lines. Industry has had their rates frozen and so the increased costs of the Energiewende have been passed on to consumers, who have had rising electricity bills. Germans in 2013 had some of the highest electricity costs in Europe.[30]

Public opinion

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Wind power Germany 2016 fact sheet: electricity generation, development, investments, capacity, employment and the public opinion.[4]

In Germany, hundreds of thousands of people have invested in citizens' wind farms across the country and thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises are running successful businesses in a new sector that in 2015 employed 142,900 people and generated 12.3 percent of Germany's electricity in 2016.[31]

However, more recently, there has been increasing local resistance to the expansion of wind power in Germany, due to its impact on the landscape, incidents where patches of forest where removed to build wind turbines, the emission of low frequency noise,[32][33] and the negative impact on wildlife, such as birds of prey and bats.[34][35]

Repowering

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Repowering, the replacement of first-generation wind turbines with modern multi-megawatt machines, is occurring in Germany. Modern turbines make better use of available wind energy and so more wind power can come from the same area of land. Modern turbines also offer much better grid integration since they use a connection method similar to conventional power plants.[36][37]

Statistics

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Annual Wind Power in Germany 1990-2015, shown in a semi-log plot with installed capacity (MW) in red and power generated (GWh) in blue

Installed wind power capacity and generation in recent years is shown in the tables below:

Total

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Total installed capacity and generation in Germany (land and sea-based combined)[18]
Year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Installed Capacity (MW) 55 106 174 326 618 1,121 1,549 2,089 2,877 4,435
Net Generation (GW·h) 71 100 275 600 909 1,500 2,032 2,966 4,489 5,528
Capacity factor 14.74% 10.77% 17.99% 21.01% 16.79% 15.28% 14.93% 16.21% 17.81% 14.23%
Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Installed Capacity (MW) 6,097 8,738 11,976 14,381 16,419 18,248 20,474 22,116 22,794 25,732
Net Generation (GW·h) 9,513 10,509 15,786 18,713 25,509 27,229 30,710 39,713 40,574 38,648
Capacity Factor 17.76% 13.73% 15.05% 14.85% 17.69% 17.03% 17.12% 20.50% 20.26% 17.15%
Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Installed Capacity (MW) 26,903 28,712 30,979 33,477 38,614 44,541 49,534 55,550 59,420 61,357
Net Generation (GW·h) 37,793 48,882 50,671 51,708 57,357 79,084 78,416 103,707 107,889 123,545
Capacity Factor 16.04% 19.43% 18.62% 17.63% 16.96% 20.27% 18.02% 21.31% 20.73% 22.99%
Year 2020 2021
Installed Capacity (MW) 62,708 63,865
Net Generation (GW·h) 129,644 111,734
Capacity Factor 23.54% 19.97%

Offshore only

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Total installed capacity and generation (sea-based only) [18]
Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Installed Capacity (MW) 30 80 188 268 508 994 3,283 4,152 5,406 6,393 7,555 7,774 7,774
Generation (GW·h) 38 174 568 722 905 1,449 8,162 12,092 17,414 19,179 24,379 26,903 24,014
Generation in the North Sea (in TWh) 20.2 22.8 18.5
Generation in the Baltic Sea (in TWh) 4.1 4.2 3.5
% of Wind Gen. 0.1 0.5 1.2 1.4 1.8 2.6 10.5 16.0 16.8 14.99 19.2 20 21.1
Capacity Factor 12.39% 24.83% 34.49% 30.67% 20.34% 16.64% 28.38% 33.15% 36.77% 34.25% 36.84% 39.40% 35.26%

By State

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Geographic distribution of wind farms in Germany
Installed capacity and wind share of annual electricity consumption by state end June 2022[38]
State No. Turbines Installed
Capacity [MW] 		Watts
per capita 		% Share in electrical
consumption [2011]
 Saxony-Anhalt 2,830 5,309 2,447 48.11
 Brandenburg 3,984 8,067 3,178 47.65
 Schleswig-Holstein 3,067 7,215 2,469 46.46
 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 1,837 3,556 2,207 46.09
 Lower Saxony 6,101 11,785 1,468 24.95
 Thuringia 850 1,733 821 12.0
 Rhineland-Palatinate 1,758 3,862 940 9.4
 Saxony 871 1,273 314 8.0
 Bremen 87 201 297 4.7
 North Rhine-Westphalia 3,573 6,548 365 3.9
 Hesse 1,139 2,337 371 2.8
 Saarland 213 520 529 2.5
 Bavaria 1,132 2,575 195 1.3
 Baden-Württemberg 772 1,729 155 0.9
 Hamburg 67 122 65 0.7
 Berlin 6 17 4 0.0
Onshore total 28,287 56,848
offshore North Sea 1,269 6,698
offshore Baltic Sea 232 1,096
Offshore total 1,501 7,794
Germany Total 29,788 64,642 776 17.6

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Burger, Bruno (3 January 2024). Öffentliche Nettostromerzeugung in Deutschland im Jahr 2023 [Public Net Electricity Generation in Germany in 2023] (PDF) (in German). Freiburg, Germany: Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Share of electricity production from wind: Germany". OurWorldInData. 2023. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  3. ^ "Wind energy in Germany".
  4. ^ a b "GERMANY: WIND POWER FACTSHEET 2016". Strom-Report.
  5. ^ "Global-Wind-2015-Report" (PDF). GWEC. p. 9, 10.
  6. ^ "Germany: Coal tops wind as primary electricity source | DW | 13.09.2021". Deutsche Welle.
  7. ^ "Accelerated expansion of offshore wind energy | Federal Government". Website of the Federal Government | Bundesregierung. 2022-04-06. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  8. ^ "Germany to accelerate renewables by cutting red tape". euronews. 2023-01-31. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
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  11. ^ Kuhbier, Jörg (22 February 2007). "Offshore Wind Power in Germany" (PDF). Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2007.
  12. ^ Alpha Ventus
  13. ^ Dohmen, Frank; Jung, Alexander (27 April 2011). "Why Germany's Offshore Wind Parks Have Stalled". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  14. ^ a b Schultz, Stefan (23 March 2011). "Will Nuke Phase-Out Make Offshore Farms Attractive?". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  15. ^ Dohmen, Frank; Jung, Alexander (30 December 2011). "Stress on the High Seas: Germany's Wind Power Revolution in the Doldrums". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  16. ^ The Wall Street Journal Online, 24 April 2012
  17. ^ "Offshore Wind Energy in Germany 2014". Bundesverband WindEnergie e.V. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  18. ^ a b c "Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Germany), Zeitreihen zur Entwicklung der erneuerbaren Energien in Deutschland, Stand February 2022".
  19. ^ "Status des Offshore-Windenergieausbaus in Deutschland - Jahr 2019" (PDF).
  20. ^ "Funding for German offshore wind terminal welcomed, but more needed". Riviera. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  21. ^ Farr, Emma-Victoria (2024-03-23). "German wind power sector welcomes government offshore terminal funding". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
  22. ^ "100% renewable electricity supply by 2050". Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. 26 January 2011. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  23. ^ Hill, Joshua S (2016-07-12). "Germany Confirms End To Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariffs". cleantechnica.com. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
  24. ^ Eckert, Vera (10 September 2021). "Zero Subsidy: Germany Awards Offshore Wind Licenses for 2026". Offshore Engineer Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021.
  25. ^ Rebecca Staudenmaier (2023-05-02). "Germany's Scholz pledges rapid onshore wind power expansion". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  26. ^ a b "Germany's energy transformation Energiewende". The Economist. Jul 28, 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  27. ^ Click Green (3 February 2015). "UK and German wind energy records drive down winter electricity bills". clickgreen.org.uk.
  28. ^ Knight, Sara (29 May 2015). "Politics block German offshore wind link". windpowermonthly.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.
  29. ^ Jesper Starn, Weixin Zha (1 December 2015). "Germany Pays to Halt Danish Wind Power to Protect Own Output". Bloomberg News.
  30. ^ "Germany's energy reform Troubled turn". The Economist. 9 Feb 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  31. ^ "Community Power Empowers". Dsc.discovery.com. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  32. ^ "Nach Vorwürfen – Wirsol geht in die Informationsoffensive". Archived from the original on 2021-01-21. Retrieved 2019-06-09.
  33. ^ "Spagat zwischen Klimaschutz und Naturschutz". Deutschlandfunk. Deutschlandfunk. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  34. ^ Wang, Shifeng (April 2015). "Ecological impacts of wind farms on birds: Questions, hypotheses, and research needs". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 44: 599–607. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.01.031.
  35. ^ Voigt, Christian (April 2015). "Wildlife and renewable energy: German politics cross migratory bats". European Journal of Wildlife Research. 61 (2): 213–219. doi:10.1007/s10344-015-0903-y. S2CID 15232410.
  36. ^ Hochstätter, Matthias; Paulsen, Thorsten; Grotz, Claudia (May 2006). "A clean issue -- Wind energy in germany" (PDF). BWE-Bundesverband Windenergie. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  37. ^ Fairley, Peter (19 January 2009). "Europe Replaces Old Wind Farms". IEEE Spectrum. Archived from the original on January 21, 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2009.
  38. ^ "Status des Windenergieausbaus an Land in Deutschland, 1. Halbjahr 2022" [Status of wind energy in Germany 30.06.2022 DEWI] (PDF) (in German). Deutsche Windguard. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
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