Overview
- Reports on Thursday, May 21 say TotalEnergies and BP are re-evaluating or seeking to withdraw from large North Sea and Baltic Sea areas they won in 2023–2024 auctions.
- German law (WindSeeG) generally bars simple returns and holds winners to build obligations with penalties set at €100 per kilowatt, a theoretical 7.5 GW withdrawal would imply about €750 million in fines.
- Companies point to delayed grid connections, higher interest and construction costs, US tariffs and Chinese export limits as the concrete reasons that projects have become uneconomic or uncertain.
- The industry association BWO is urging a new voluntary-return rule and indexed 'difference' contracts to limit investor losses, while the economy ministry says it 'takes the situation seriously' and can use case-by-case legal options like shifting construction deadlines.
- If developers abandon projects, the BWO and press estimates say up to around 16 GW of capacity could be blocked, putting roughly €50 billion of project and procurement value at stake and threatening about 49,000 German supply‑chain jobs.