London — Germany has added 2.4 GW new onshore wind capacity in the first nine months of the year, down 41% on the same period of 2017, the latest data from the federal grid regulator show.
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Register NowSeptember saw a slight rebound to 208 MW after monthly additions in August hit a four-year low of 62 MW, the data show.
Total installed onshore wind capacity has reached 53 GW with some 20 GW added over the past four years amid a rush for legacy feed-in-tariffs that will end this year.
That boom is expected to come to a near-halt in 2019 and 2020 with most projects auctioned last year unlikely to get realized before 2021.
In addition, permits for new projects have slowed to a trickle due to a number of challenges with the latest auction in October undersubscribed and subsidized contract prices rising again above Eur60/MWh.
Despite the slowdown in capacity additions and a disappointing summer wind harvest, German wind power output is still on track for another record year with output for the first ten months up 8% on year at 85 TWh, TSO data shows.
That data, however, also includes offshore wind output with some 6 GW now installed in the North and Baltic Sea benefiting from higher load factors.
--Andreas Franke, andreas.franke@spglobal.com
--Edited by James Leech, james.leech@spglobal.com