According to the figures provided by Deutsche WindGuard, the gross expansion of onshore wind turbines in 2018 is virtually collapsing. With only 2,402MW or 743 turbines, new construction is still falling short of the 2013 level, although the demand for renewable electricity will increase significantly in perspective.
The installations correspond to a decline of 55 per cent compared to 2017 and thus are even well below the figures of 3,300 MW estimated by the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) and VDMA Power Systems in mid-2018. The reason for the low level of new construction is the high proportion of projects awarded without approval, which dominated the tenders in 2017 and have not yet been implemented. In addition, more than 900MW from the old Renewable Energies Act (EEG) could not be connected to the grid on time. For the year 2019, the associations expect only an increase of just under 2,000MW.
