The European Commission has found that German plans to support the building of 20 offshore wind farms are in line with EU state aid rules. Seventeen wind farms will be located in the North Sea and three in the Baltic Sea.
The Commission concluded that the project would further EU energy and environmental objectives without unduly distorting competition in the single market. In October 2014 Germany notified plans to support the construction and operation of several offshore wind farms. Aid would be granted to operators in the form of a premium paid on top of the market price for electricity. The size of each wind farm ranges from 252MW) to 688MW and, in total, the projects will make available up to 7GW of renewable energy generation capacity. The total investment costs amount to € 29.3 billion. All wind farms are planned to start producing electricity by the end of 2019 at the latest. The Commission assessed the projects under its Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy that entered into force in July 2014
