PVTIME – On 3 September 2026, Germany’s Federal Cabinet adopted a draft amendment to the Offshore Wind Energy Act (WindSeeG). Published by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the draft will now proceed to the Bundestag and Bundesrat for parliamentary review before it can come into effect. The legislation maintains the country’s statutory offshore wind capacity targets of 30GW by 2030, 40GW by 2035, and 70GW by 2045.
The reform introduces a two-stage tender framework for offshore wind auctions. Bidding opens with a dynamic auction without a price ceiling. If this initial round fails to attract viable bids, the tender will proceed to a second-phase Contract for Difference auction. This mechanism has been designed by policymakers to boost project delivery rates and strengthen investment certainty within Germany’s offshore wind regulatory environment. These rule changes are a response to a failed offshore wind tender held in August 2025, which exposed weaknesses in the previous bidding model.
The German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) has publicly criticised the two-stage tender structure and is urging lawmakers to adopt a CfD-only auction framework. During parliamentary deliberations, the industry body is also calling for binding indexation of CfD strike prices to offset cost volatility across project construction phases.
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