Germany has announced the winners of the offshore wind auction for three centrally pre-investigated project zones. The auction was for three sites in the North Sea with a planned total output of 5.5GW which had been pre-investigated by the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. Qualitative criteria for the tender included the willingness to make a cash payment in euros for the respective area while decarbonisation of offshore expansion and the use of environmentally friendly foundation technologies were also a factor. A total of five bids were submitted for the three areas, one for area N-9.1 and two each for the N-9.2 and N-9.3 areas. The contracts for areas N-9.1 and N-9.2 were awarded to Offshore Wind Four GmbH and Offshore Wind Two GmbH. Both those companies are special purpose vehicles based in Essen and are joint ventures between Geman utility RWE and French energy giant TotalEnergies. The contract for area N-9.3 went to Waterekke Energy which is connected to asset manager Luxcara. The commissioning of the wind farm at N-9.1 is planned for 2030 while the N-9.3 and N-9.2 wind farms are expected to be operational in 2029 and 2031, respectively. The next step for the successful bidders is to enter the planning approval procedure for the construction and operation of wind turbines as well as submit a request for the connection to the grid. According to the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, the proceeds from the offshore tenders will primarily be used to reduce electricity costs and, to a smaller extent, protect the marine environment and promote environmentally friendly fishing. The electricity cost reduction component will be paid to the transmission system operator in equal annual instalments for 20 years, starting with the respective completion dates of the wind farms. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsGermany Offshore Wind