World outlook
British or Italian neighbours. One solution could be the immense power of wind. If nothing else, the sector’s renewed popularity is clear from internet data. Google searches for ‘windenergie’ across the federal republic have almost tripled since the start of 2022. Nor is that term ‘renewed’ merely incidental. On the contrary, Germany’s sudden pivot away from Nord Stream 2 gives the country’s wind sector a second chance after years of listless investment and nimbyism. And with government officials promising a wind revolution by the middle of this century, there’s every chance that this time the nation’s turbines can truly fulfil their potential – even if the Russian threat may endure in more insidious ways.
A renewal for renewables? If the latest chapter of Germany’s wind odyssey is being shaped by crisis, you could argue the previous one was too. Reliant on nuclear energy for decades – through the 2000s, the country secured a quarter of its electricity from atomic fission – the 2011 Fukushima disaster prompted a dramatic reassessment. Though the circumstances of Japan’s disaster were largely specific to the earthquake that preceded it, Germany’s leaders nonetheless sped into action. Just days after the Fukushima meltdown, Angela Merkel (she was chancellor then, too) announced she was suspending the extension of her country’s nuclear capacity. Three months later, the German parliament voted to close all its nuclear stations by the end of 2022. Yet, if events 11 years ago were a desperate blow for supporters of nuclear power, things were rather rosier for German wind. “In the beginning, and in particular after Fukushima, growth was very steep,” explains Christoph Podewils, director of communications and spokesperson at Global Solutions Initiative, a Berlin group that supports different think tanks. “From 2010–2020, we could see a very fast and substantial ramp up of wind power.” Fair enough: as Podewils says, Germany’s annual wind capacity tripled to 132TWh in the decade after Fukushima, and now represents 20% of annual production. And as Heike Winkler adds, pure capacity was also bolstered by an expansion in technical expertise. By 2015, explains the managing director at WAB, an industry body, “the full supply chain was active” – meaning everyone from project developers to service companies were set up and ready to build.
Beyond the demands of politics or the specifics of industry competence, however, perhaps the best way to understand Germany’s historical boom in wind is to study its geography. To the country’s north sit the North and Baltic Seas, both famed for their ferocious squalls. Some parts of Germany’s North Sea coast see winds of up to 10.1m/s. To put that into perspective, the Mediterranean typically gets speeds of just 8m/s. Nor is German geography any less accommodating once you’ve reached land. The north of the country,
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between Bremen and the Polish border, is an enormous plain, encumbered by natural barriers and perfect for rows of turbines. Unfortunately, this natural bounty couldn’t save German wind from one of the government’s many energy about-faces. Despite talk of putting renewables “centre stage” (Merkel again), politicians gradually abandoned their post-Fukushima enthusiasm for wind in favour of the ill-fated Nord Stream 2. In 2016, for instance, government support for onshore wind was cut by 1.2%.
Spurred on by an electorate that often dismisses turbines as a blight, regional politicians have limited wind’s growth too. In Bavaria, turbines must be at least 2.5km from the nearest house, obviously making large- scale development hard. At times, this sluggishness has even been supported at the highest levels. As recently as 2020, Angela Merkel proposed compensating homeowners who live near onshore farms. No wonder the number of people employed in the German wind sector has slumped by 8,000 from its 29,000 peak, with barely any new turbines built in 2020 or 2021.
“In the beginning, and in particular after Fukushima, growth was very steep. From 2010–2020, we could see a very fast and substantial ramp up of wind power.”
Christoph Podewils Green lit
When it emerges from the soil of Lower Saxony sometime in 2023, Bartelsdorf 2 will be a striking case study for a new Germany. Built by RWE, and adding five additional Nordex wind turbines to a pre-existing site, the improved wind farm will generate 28.5MW of energy – enough to power around 18,000 homes. Nor is Bartelsdorf 2 unique. RWE is spending $65.8m (€60m) to develop another two onshore farms alongside its plot in Lower Saxony, among them an expanded 45MW
20%
Percentage of Germany’s energy production that is made up of wind power.
GlobalData 11
Above: In January 2022, Germany’s maritime and hydrographic agency approved three North Sea sites that could create 1.9GW of energy.
Next page: Meerwind Sued-Ost’s transformer facility located on the North Sea some 30km from German land.
WindMW Service
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