Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has announced the winners of its 7 GW offshore wind site auction, which offered three 2 GW areas in the North Sea and one 1 GW area in the Baltic Sea and was the first to feature a dynamic bidding process, carried out for all four tendered areas. The auction attracted €12.6bn in bids and the French and British oil and gas companies TotalEnergies and BP emerged as the winners of the tender.
BP was awarded two maritime concessions (N-1.1 and N-12.2), for a total capacity of 4 GW. Concession N-1.1 was awarded to BP for €1.83m/MW, while N-12.2 was awarded for €1.56m/MW. The two North Sea sites are located 130 km and 150 km off the German coast. Subject to receiving the necessary permits and approvals, these would be BP’s first offshore wind projects in Germany. BP targets grid connection of the projects by 2030.
TotalEnergies was also awarded two of those maritime concessions (N-12.1 and O-2.2) for a total capacity of 3 GW. Located in the North Sea, 170 km off the German coast, concession N-12.1 covers an area of around 200 km2 and was awarded to the French company for €1.87m/MW. Located in the Baltic Sea, 40 km from the coast, concession O-2.2 has a surface area of around 100 km2 and was awarded for €2.07m/MW. TotalEnergies also expects commissioning by 2030.
These projects will assist Germany in its objective of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind power in the country by 2030 (7.8 GW as of end-2021).
The Bundesnetzagentur introduced a dynamic bidding process for the auction in June 2023 following the submission of several zero-cent bids for all four areas. The zero-cent bids indicate that companies are willing to invest in offshore wind energy without requiring subsidies, highlighting the economic attractiveness of the sector.
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