BWE Industry Report - Wind Industry in Germany 2018

THE GERMAN MARKET

THE GERMAN MARKET Wind power is driving the German energy transition More wind turbines were installed in Germany in 2017 than ever before. The good weather conditions also set new records for power generation. As a result, the German green power target for 2020 is expected to be reached by 2017. The record increase of 1,792 onshore wind turbines with a total rated capacity of 5,333 MW stood out – amounting to 15 percent more than in the previous year and 12 percent more than in the previous record year of 2014. This is because all plants that were approved by the end of 2016 are able to go live with fixed feed-in tariffs by the end of 2018 in accordance with the old 2014 version of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). This affects around 8,600 MW. The remaining 3,300 MW of approved plants that are not yet supplying the grid will most likely follow in 2018. At the turn of the year, a total of 28,675 onshore wind farms, supplying 50,777 MW of power, were connected to the grid. The total number of turbines may become slightly less as a result of decommissioning older turbines (repowering). A similar “final sprint” is currently taking place for offshore wind turbines, which can still claim fixed-price compensation until the deadline of 31 December 2019. In the offshore sector, 222 new turbines with a total capacity of 1,250 MW were connected to the grid last year – an increase of 55 percent compared to the previous year and the second largest expansion so far. This means that, by the turn of the year, 1,169 plants with an installed capacity of around 5,387 MW were connected to the grid. By the end of 2019, just under 2,300 MW will have been added under the 2014 EEG. EXPANSION OF WIND ENERGY IN GERMANY Wind power is growing fast Annual newly installed/decommissioned capacity (MW) 5,500 5,000 4,500 4,000 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 Cumulative capacity (repowering) Cumulative capacity (new projects) Annual installed capacity (repowering) Annual installed capacity (new projects) Annual decommissioned capacity 55,000 50,000 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 Cumulative capacity (MW) -500 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 -5,000 Source: Deutsche WindGuard 2018 14 Wind Industry in Germany

Economic report | THE GERMAN MARKET ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE POWER GENERATION Strong increase in production Monthly power generation (TWh) 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2016 – Monthly generation 2016 – Cumulative generation 2017 – Monthly generation 2017 – Cumulative generation 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 Cumulative power generation (TWh) 2 10 0 January February March April May June July August Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Source: 50 Hertz, Amprion, TenneT, Transnet BW 0 Source: Deutsche WindGuard 2018 Very high growth in power generation The figures determined by Deutsche WindGuard also show new record values for the amount of wind power generated. Onshore production in 2017 rose by almost a third to 85 billion kWh. Offshore wind turbines provided a combined total of 18.3 billion kWh of power, an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2016. This was due not only to the high level of newly installed capacity, but also to favourable weather conditions in the so-called ‘wind year’. Wind energy thus remains the workhorse of the energy transition in the electricity sector. According to preliminary figures compiled by the working group AGEE- Stat for the German Federal Ministry of Economics, electricity generation from renewables in Germany increased by about 15 percent in 2017, to 216 billion kWh. The share of renewable energies in gross electricity consumption is therefore around 36 percent, compared to 31.5 percent in the previous year. This ratio has more than doubled since 2010 (16.9 percent). The German government’s goal of at least 35 percent by the year 2020 has thus already been achieved. The new installation statistics for 2017 also show a regional distribution of wind energy that is important for the cohesion of the German electricity market. While in the early years of wind energy, around 90 percent of turbines were installed in coastal regions, under the old EEG they increasingly reached Germany’s southern regions. “The fact that the southern German states now account for 44 percent of the additional construction demonstrates that, from a technical perspective, the use of wind energy is economical throughout Germany,” says Hermann Albers, President of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE). North Rhine-Westphalia ranked second with a gross new installation volume of 307 wind turbines (870 MW), behind Lower Saxony (485 wind turbines, 1,436 MW), but ahead of Schleswig-Holstein (180 wind turbines, 552 MW) and Brandenburg (171 wind turbines, 535 MW). Baden-Württemberg made it to fifth place with 128 wind turbines, supplying 401 MW. On average, this was where the largest turbine facilities were built. Politicians now face the challenge of maintaining this regional balance despite the switch to a tender system. For 2018, an additional onshore capacity of about 3,500 MW is to be expected, of which about 3,300 MW will be under the transitional system, with a small proportion representing the first new installations under the tender system. From 2019, annual new capacity will be capped at 2,800 to 2,900 MW. It is uncertain how much expansion can be expected, given that in the first tender procedures it was mainly community wind projects without approval that won the bids, and these will not be put into operation until 2021 at the earliest. Wind Industry in Germany 15