Finally some good news from the German wind energy sector: the number of contracts awarded in the latest round of tenders for onshore turbines climbed to a record high. "However, the good figures conceal the fact that it is still taking too long to process the tenders and that the awards are distributed very differently from region to region," comments Markus W. Voigt, CEO of the aream Group.

According to the Federal Network Agency, bids totalling 2,379 megawatts were awarded in the May tender for onshore wind energy plants. With this record figure, the target volume of 2.5 gigawatts under the Renewable Energy Sources Act was almost reached. In total, projects with a volume of 4,200 megawatts have been awarded in the current year. The German government therefore considers itself to be on track with its expansion targets. Two more rounds are still to come this year, the next one in August.

"The figures are encouraging, but problems remain," says Voigt. One is the persistently uneven regional distribution: projects over 1,475 megawatts are concentrated in the three federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, which corresponds to 62 per cent of the total. The other problem is bureaucracy. The new amendments to the Federal Immission Control Act are likely to shorten the authorisation period for plants. "However, too much time still passes between the tendering process and allocation, which is hampering expansion."

The aream wind turbines in Germany suffered from weak winds last June. In addition, a malfunction in the park control system shut down two plants, which cost 500 MWh. In addition, some wind farms were curtailed despite the weak wind. All of this reduced the target achievement in June to 81 per cent; the figure for the first half of the year as a whole is around 94 per cent. 

In contrast, the German solar plants in the aream portfolio achieved a target of 96 per cent last June. With average hours of sunshine, the result was reduced by curtailment (approx. 300 MWh). The aream systems in Spain fell short of expectations due to curtailments (around 290 MWh) and a slightly below-average performance (target achievement 85 per cent). Italy delivered a performance of 98 per cent in line with expectations with weak irradiation.