Germany's strongly expanding wind power industry is now about to take the next step in the bid to establish wind-generated electricity on an industrial scale -- going out to sea.
In a development which promises even greater potential for the alternative source of electricity generation, the Prokon company in Leer, in the North Frisian region of northwestern Germany has become the first to receive approval for an offshore windpark.
Initially it will be a modest facility: only 12 wind generators about 45km offshore from the North Sea island of Borkum.
But if the first phase is successful, Prokon Nord already has the blueprints made for a windpark of 200 generators -- producing the electricity equivalent to two coal-burning plants -- in what would be a DM250 million (US$115 million) project.
It's a move which analysts say is the next logical step in the wind power industry. After a decade of strong expansion with land- based wind generators, German operators and windpark contractors have started to run out of space on the mainland.
At the moment, 23 potential offshore German projects are under study. The sea -- with its more constant breezes promising greater efficiency in terms of generation-hours per year -- has become the next frontier for the industry.
The development of windparks out at sea also promises to make stock analysts sit up and take even more serious note of this tiny segment of the German power generation industry.
Analysts at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt point out that there are currently four major players among the German wind park developers: Energiekontor of Bremen, P&T Technology in Hamburg, Umweltkontor in Erkelenz and Plambeck in Cuxhhaven.
HSBC has given the Energiekontor company good ratings for its land-based operations, while noting that there is a "high saturation of the German wind market" but that the company has positioned itself for "attractive markets outside of Germany."
Another report, by the Hamburgische Landesbank, sees the offshore project by Prokon as giving a boost to the German wind power industry, especially in the bid to make the electricity production more price-competitive.
"In the meantime, wind energy can be produced at a similarly low price as with the use of conventional energy," said Hamburgische Landesbank analyst Claudia Erdmann.
Last summer, prospects for sea-based windparks got a further boost when the German government said it planned to provide fast-track approval for at least 15 new offshore windparks in the Baltic and North Sea to replace nuclear power stations which are to be closed.
This came as good news for the industry, with P&T Technology investor relations executive Oliver Eggert saying that bureaucracy had been the biggest obstacle.
He said that the question as to where sea-based windparks could be located and the process for seeking a licence for a project had been complicated by the fact that there were so many competing economic and environmental protection interest groups and ministries involved.
"Our company has stayed away from this area because of the legal uncertainties," Eggert said. "The areas explicitly set aside as nature preserves were not legally binding."
As HSBC analysts note, with land space for windparks becoming increasingly scarce in Germany, wind power developers also must start looking abroad if they are to continue the pace of expansion that has occurred in Germany over the past decade.
For example, P&T Technology has gained permission for windparks in Greece and Poland, while Energiekontor is pursuing small-scale projects in Greece, Wales and Portugal, the HSBC analysts note.
At the moment, according to statistics by the International Economic Forum for Regenerative Energy (IWR) in Duesseldorf, Germany now has more than 10,000 wind generators in operation, with an installed capacity of 7,500 megawatts.
For this year, the IWR is projecting German wind-power electrical output of 13 billion kilowatt-hours, up 42 percent from 9.1 billion last year. In reviewing the forthcoming wind energy technology fair -- Windtech -- set for November 27 and 28 in Grevenbroich, IWR said German now gets 3 percent of its electricty from wind generators.
Hamburgische Landesbank figures show that Germany, the world leader in wind energy production, accounts for nearly half of the total wind-generated electrical output in Europe.
By the end of this year, the installed capacity in Germany will reach some 8,840 megawatts, out of a projected European-wide total of some 18,500. Spain -- where German wind technology companies are now the most involved -- is a distant second at around 4,440 megawatts.
Under European promotion of wind-generated electrical power production, by 2010 Europe is to have 77,000 megawatts of installed capacity, whereby Germany's share would be down to less than one-third at 25,000 megawatts. Spain would be next at 15,000 megawatts, followed by France at 10,000 megawatts and Britain at 5,000 megawatts.
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