26th of July 2023. Wind power is a hot topic at the moment, so Berlin has to have a wind power priority area of 445 hectares (as of April 2023). The following article was published at 21th of July 2023: German Newspaper Focus, https://www.msn.com/de-de/finanzen/top-stories/vattenfall-stoppt-bau-von-meereswindpark/ar-AA1e71hJ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=466e191299004a25bd5aad31fe0fb081&ei=79. Swedish energy supplier Vattenfall has halted its 1.4 gigawatt Norfolk Boreas wind turbine project off the UK coast. The main reason for this are cost increases of up to 40 percent, the group board said. “Vattenfall secured the contract for Norfolk Boreas at an auction last year at a fixed price of £37.35 per megawatt hour.” The wind farm should supply electricity for 1.5 million households. Other proposed projects - Vanguard Est and Vanguard West - are also under review. All three wind farms together would have an energy output of 4.2 gigawatts. High inflation and rising capital costs make the planned energy turnaround on the high seas more expensive. Vattenfall is now taking the consequences.
Vattenfall certainly calculated this very precisely - but the prices targeted in an assured price guarantee are probably not feasible without subsidies for offshore wind farms. The complex foundation of the towers, the complex maintenance of the systems and the rapid wear and tear due to salt water are particularly difficult and expensive. This also applies to other countries as Germany: “ Last week, corporations paid money for the right to build wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for the first time in a bidding process. The sale by the Federal Network Agency brought in 12.6 billion euros. Two of the North Sea areas went to subsidiaries of the oil multinational BP, the other two areas to Total Energies companies. Companies from the wind power industry went away empty-handed. Industry representatives fear that the oil companies have secured the land for a lot of money but will ultimately not build anything there.”.
