Federal ministers say 500 new offshore wind turbines will be built by 2030

Germany plans to start tenders for 5GW of new offshore wind in 2023 and start construction in 2027, a multi-state meeting in Hannover heard yesterday.

Committing to "fix the goal legally in the coming months", Lower Saxony's environment minister Olaf Lies said it "will mean a lot of work for us, in terms of rapid legal foundations as well as for the participating planning authorities, and for grid expansion on land.

"Tenders should be made by 2023, the start of construction in 2027," according to the minister who was quoted in a statement issued by the Lower Saxony environment ministry.

The meeting heard that 500 more offshore wind turbines will be needed to meet the country's new 20GW goal, which was the increase committed to last month up from the country's previous 15GW aim.

State secretary Andreas Feicht of the federal ministry of economics and energy promised to draw up an expansion action plan. He said: "We want to make society fit for a future with considerably less CO2. That is why we will draw up an offshore action plan with the aim of achieving 20GW of offshore wind energy in the North and Baltic Seas by 2030."

He said the plans will include "an ambitious expansion on land".

Grid expansion will be the focus of a conference in Berlin in November, said Feicht. At that meeting, the federal states will formulate "specific tasks and guidelines for network expansion", he said.

A TenneT representative at the meeting said the TSO will support the "ambitious plans with the appropriate power grid expansion". However, politicians need to offer "planning security", said the representative.