Eight state premiers have petitioned Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katharina Reiche (CDU) in a joint letter, calling for significant amendments to the offshore wind energy law. The regional leaders, which include Olaf Lies (SPD, Lower Saxony), Markus Söder (CSU, Bavaria), Daniel Günther (CDU, Schleswig-Holstein), and Cem Özdemir (Greens, Baden-Württemberg), warn that Reiche’s current law could trigger deindustrialization. The premiers stated in the letter, as reported by the “Handelsblatt,” that they see an urgent need for action during the legislative process.
The shared concern among the premiers is that “false regulatory and industrial policy decisions in an already geopolitically challenging competitive environment could contribute to deindustrialization.” Other signatories include Anke Rehlinger (SPD, Saarland), Peter Tschentscher (SPD, Hamburg), Manuela Schwesig (SPD, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), and Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD, Bremen).
The Federal Cabinet approved the draft “Law for the Optimization and Security of Offshore Wind Energy Expansion” in early September. The state premiers criticized the draft because it does not permit companies the option to return areas that were successfully auctioned off for billions of euros, so that those areas can be re-auctioned. The premiers emphasized that projects that are no longer feasible must not block areas and grid capacities. The letter further insisted on the necessity of a “single, clearly conditioned, and legally secure option for return, with a quick re-auction, in which preliminary work remains usable.” They warned that an impending “potential break” in offshore wind energy development would become “an industrial policy risk for Germany.”
Furthermore, Reiche’s draft does not include so-called Contracts for Difference (CfDs) as a standard feature. CfDs guarantee power operators a fixed price for the energy they generate, and this price is determined in an auction. If the market price falls below this amount, the state covers the difference; if it is higher, the state takes the surplus revenue. However, in Reiche’s law, CfDs are only applied if an initial round of auctions fails without state backing. The premiers described this “planned two-stage system” as detrimental and demanded that it be eliminated entirely, urging Reiche to act quickly. The letter concluded by stating that “the reform must be passed swiftly enough to allow for successful auctions by 2027,” as reported by the “Handelsblatt.”
