Source: Energy & Management Powernews, July 12, 2022
Newly approved wind turbine capacity sags by more than 8% in the first half of the year. In contrast, just as much power was put into operation as in the same period last year.
Politics and reality came only a little closer together in the first half of the year. While federal and state governments conjure up a faster expansion of wind power on land, figures paint a sobering picture. According to preliminary data from the Fachagentur Windenenergie an Land (FA Wind), 284 wind turbine projects with a total electrical output of just under 1,440 MW have been approved across Germany since January. In the same period last year, there were 336 turbines with a cumulative output of 1,570 MW. That means a performance minus of more than 8%.
Minus 45 percent in the extreme north
Strongly weakened for example Lower Saxony: While in the first half-year 2021 more than 320 MW had been approved, it was so far 280 MW in 2022 - a minus of 13%. Schleswig-Holstein sank by more than 45%. In the first six months of last year, the state had approved around 450 MW of new capacity (96 turbines); in the current year, the green light has been given for 240 MW (half the number of turbines). North Rhine-Westphalia, on the other hand, made gains: more than 270 MW were approved most recently (56 plants), compared with 211 MW (49 plants) in the same period last year.
The commissioning statistics
A different set of figures emerges for the commissioning of new plants. Jürgen Quentin, energy management officer at FA Wind, speaks of a sideways movement. According to preliminary figures, 976 MW gross were added in the first half of the year, the year before Germany achieved a plus of 978 MW.
- In Lower Saxony, the addition shrank by almost 33%.
- It declined even more sharply in Baden-Württemberg, after 85 MW in the first six months of 2021, it was 21 MW this year.
- Once again, Bavaria was very restrained: seven new turbines in 2021 with 23 MW were compared to three wind turbines with a total of 9 MW this year.
By a factor of 4 below plan
The added capacity will also this year in all likelihood be a factor of four less than is required to achieve the energy transition and climate protection targets, says Quentin. "Instead of 10 gigawatts, at best it is likely to be only 2.5 GW, as last year."
The expert points to the pressure to act. "It took us about 20 years to get to just under 57 GW of onshore wind power capacity. To reach the 2030 targets, the capacity installed today will have to be doubled in the next nine years."
An average of four years
As ambitious as that seems - "it's feasible," Quentin says, "provided the approval processes were significantly accelerated." At the moment, he says, it takes "an average of four years from the application to the first kilowatt-hour of wind power fed into the grid." Compared with the years 2011 to 2016, the procedures would have lengthened by 60%.
Also reasons apart from politics
There are also reasons why expansion of wind power is currently heading for a lull rather than an upswing, and there is little that politics can do about it in this country. "Plants cannot be completed because there are significant delivery problems with individual components," says Quentin. In the case of transformers, he says, there are delivery times of more than 24 months. Which means that projects cannot be realized partly in the time, in which an addition from the advertisement is to be converted, describe it.
In addition the scarcity and rise in price of raw materials come. As an example, Quentin cites steel, which is currently in short supply throughout Europe.
Author: Manfred Fischer
