April 11 (Renewables Now) – Germany issued approvals for new onshore wind projects with a total output of 1.04 GW in the first quarter of 2022 which represents an 8.2% drop in annual terms and raises concerns about the expansion pace of wind energy in the country.
A decline was observed also in terms of the number of approved turbines. In the first three months of this year, approval was granted for the deployment of 204 machines, down 14% year-on-year, Germany’s wind power association WindEnergie said on Monday.
The significantly higher output of 5.14 MW per wind turbine on average is not enough to offset the decline in the number of approvals, said the association’s head Hermann Albers. Once again, Germany’s southern states are lagging behind with nine turbines approved in Baden-Wuerttemberg, four in Rhineland-Palatinate, three in Bavaria and two in Saxony, Albers added. In Saxony, the new machines of a combined 8 MW that were approved between January and March are just enough to compensate for the capacity that was lost last year in the state due to dismantling.
The federal government last week passed the so-called EEG-Easter package of provisions that sets targets for a sharp increase in the tender volume for onshore wind but this must be combined with accelerated approval processes and a booster for repowering, Albers said further.
Under the planned legislative changes, Germany will raise the tender volume for onshore wind to 10 GW per year, compared with 4 GW in 2022, so that a total of 115 GW of onshore capacity is installed across the country by 2030.
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