German wind developer expects to break through gigawatt annual commissioning barrier
Eastern Germany's UKA successful at heavily oversubscribed onshore wind tender last week
German developer UKA expects to soon commission more than 1GW of new wind capacity per year, after being successful in the country’s latest onshore wind tender.
The Saxony-based developer had won state support for the operation of 104 new wind turbines with more than 700MW in capacity at an oversubscribed German auction for wind on land last week.
“The renewed awards allow the group to commission an additional 104 wind turbines between 2026 and 2028,” UKA managing partner Gernot Gauglitz said.
“This means that UKA is expected to commission more than 1GW of onshore wind power in Germany for the first time in a calendar year in 2027.
“These successful awards also benefit our partners, customers, and employees, as they will enable us to make major strides forward in implementing our German project pipeline of more than 9GW of onshore wind power."
UKA was able to win more than 700MW in capacity last week, although the auction was heavily oversubscribed – with 604 bids going in with a combined capacity of 5.7GW for the 3.4W on offer.
Germany’s federal grids agency (BNetzA) on Wednesday announced that 376 bids with a combined capacity of 3.4GW were awarded in the end.
"This auction was once again heavily oversubscribed. The submitted bid volume of more than 5.7GW is the second-highest value in a tender to date,” BNetzA president Klaus Müller said.
“The award values fell again compared to the preliminary round."
Alterric also successful
Alterric, another German developer, on Monday said it also was successful at the latest onshore wind tender.
The company said it secured over 100MW across five wind projects in the states of Brandenburg, Hesse, and Lower Saxony.
Alterric is a joint venture between regional utility EWE and the Aloys-Wobben Foundation that owns wind turbine manufacturer Enercon. The developer uses mostly, but not exclusively, Enercon machines in its projects.
Including at last week's auction, more than 10GW of onshore wind capacity has been awarded in Germany this year already.