A major German auction for wind power installation in the North Sea has closed without a single company entering a bid. No investors submitted offers to build wind turbines in an area totalling 182 square kilometres off the coast of Frisia by the end of the bid deadline on 1 August.
The failed auction has led lobbying organisations to demand an increase in subsidies and public guarantees to make wind power investments more attractive for investors.
According to planning by the Federal Network Agency, the public body in charge of developing Germany’s electricity network, the two sites in auction, dubbed N-10.1 and N-10.2, were slated for a production capacity of 2,500 megawatts (MW) – equivalent to more than 200 wind turbines – with completion planned for 2030 and 2031.
Now this timeline may be in jeopardy.
A previous wind power auction for nearby site N-9.4 had already revealed structural weaknesses of the auction process according to the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, a lobbying organisation. Only two bidders participated in the auction and the final award price was €180,000 per MW. This is more than 80 per cent below the levels reached in 2023.
The foundation said that the current bidding regime in combination with disrupted supply chains, inflationary pressure and higher capital costs were increasing the risk for investors, thus scaring away potential bidders.
Stefan Thimm, managing director of lobbying organisation Bundesverband Windenergie Offshore (BWO) echoed the sentiment. “The industry has warned for years that too many risks are being placed on developers. The current rules force developers to shoulder risks beyond their control without any safeguards. The German offshore wind market is currently not attractive to investors”, Thimm said.
Critics of Germany’s ambitious renewable energy plans see the failed auction as another sign that the country’s energy strategy is failing. Christoph Canne, founder of the pro-nuclear lobbying organisation Vernunftkraft wrote on X that the failed auction illustrated that the massive expansion of offshore wind power envisioned in the “green planned economy world” was not viable.
The failed auction is the latest indication that offshore wind power generation is economically unattractive. In 2024, three similar tenders in Denmark, the United States, and South Africa ended without a qualified bid. In 2023, two auctions in the United Kingdom and in the US did not attract any investors.
