Germany: Won’t auction more wind blocs

Calls from industry lobbies and utilities including Vattenfall AB for Germany to auction more offshore wind blocs are unlikely to fall on sympathetic ears until voters elect a new parliament.

Germany’s maiden offshore auction, which wrapped up last month with the winners willing to forgo subsidies for the first time, is spurring calls to raise tender caps as developers seek yields through economies of scale. While the calls have garnered backing in the Environment Ministry, the prospects of amending auction limits are zero, lawmaker Bernd Westphal said.

“You can forget lifting the caps before the election in September,” the Social Democrat’s spokesman for energy said in an interview at a wind conference in the port of Bremerhaven.

Industry lobbies including the Offshore Wind Foundation are asking why Germany needs offshore auctions at all if utilities are ready to build for free, seeking investment returns in competitive prices for wind power in the open market.