Overview
- On Friday Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said the federal government will demand contractual penalties if companies formally withdraw from auctioned offshore wind areas.
- TotalEnergies says it is continuing work but has an ongoing strategic review of concessions awarded since 2023 and publicly cites announced delays to grid connections; media reports say BP is also weighing exits.
- The industry association BWO warned that up to 16 gigawatts of planned offshore capacity could be blocked and proposed voluntary return-and-reauction rules to release sites quickly.
- Experts and companies point to multi-year grid‑connection delays, rising supply‑chain costs, high interest rates and weak merchant power returns as the reasons projects have become less economic and why 2025 additions fell to about 0.1 GW.
- Some developers such as RWE and EnBW say they will proceed with projects while policymakers debate measures including state credit support, new re‑auction rules and transmission planning choices that could affect consumer costs if auction revenues are lost.