IN Brief:
- ABO Energy secured August auction awards for three German onshore wind projects totalling 102.2MW.
- Bentheim Süd and Rhein-Mosel will use Siemens Gamesa SG 7.0-170 turbines, while Losheim will use Nordex N163 machines.
- Commissioning is planned between mid-2028 and early 2029 after an auction in which 5.25GW of bids competed for about 2.52GW.
ABO Energy has secured German onshore wind auction awards for three projects with combined capacity of 102.2MW, covering new developments in Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate alongside a repowering scheme in Saarland.
The Federal Network Agency awards cover Bentheim Süd, Rhein-Mosel and Losheim. Together, the projects comprise 15 turbines and are scheduled to enter service between the middle of 2028 and early 2029.
Bentheim Süd is the largest of the three developments. The Lower Saxony project will use seven Siemens Gamesa SG 7.0-170 turbines rated at 6.6MW each, providing 46.2MW of installed generating capacity.
Rhein-Mosel will use another four SG 7.0-170 machines, operated at 7MW each, adding 28MW in Rhineland-Palatinate. ABO Energy says the project’s permit became final in January, moving it beyond the principal approval stage before the latest auction award.
Losheim contributes a further 28MW through four Nordex N163 turbines rated at 7MW. Unlike the other two developments, it is a repowering project, replacing older generating equipment with fewer, larger turbines at an established wind site.
The awards were secured in one of Germany’s most heavily subscribed wind auctions of 2026. Bundesnetzagentur offered around 2.52GW of capacity and received 461 bids totalling approximately 5.25GW, more than twice the volume available.
Regulators awarded 237 bids representing 2.523GW. Successful prices ranged from 4.49 to 4.98 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, with the volume-weighted average falling to 4.79 cents/kWh from 5.06 cents/kWh in the previous round.
Lower Saxony received the largest regional award volume at 836MW, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia with 430MW and Rhineland-Palatinate with 336MW. ABO Energy’s portfolio therefore sits within a tender where permitted capacity substantially exceeded the support available.
An auction award fixes the revenue framework rather than completing the project. Each development still has to move through financing, detailed design, turbine procurement, balance-of-plant contracting, civil construction, electrical installation, grid connection and commissioning before electricity can be sold under the awarded terms.
The turbine selections illustrate the scale now common in German onshore wind development. Bentheim Süd and Rhein-Mosel use machines from the Siemens Gamesa 170-metre rotor platform, while Losheim uses the Nordex N163 family. Larger rotors and ratings allow significant project capacity to be delivered with fewer turbines, but increase individual foundation loads and the size of transport and lifting operations.
The electrical balance of plant also changes with machine scale. Each project requires medium-voltage collection circuits, transformer capacity, protection, communications, plant control and a compliant grid interface capable of handling the combined output of turbines measured in several megawatts each.
Repowering at Losheim adds decommissioning and interface work to that programme. Existing turbines have to be removed while the site is prepared for new foundations and electrical equipment, and any retained network infrastructure has to be assessed against the operating characteristics and fault contribution of the replacement machines.
ABO Energy has also been moving other German projects through construction and asset sales. The company recently sold the rights to the approximately 43MW Dittelsheim-Heßloch 2 development to Vattenfall and has transferred additional permitted or under-construction projects to investors including Perigus Energy and Blue Elephant Energy.
Those transactions reflect the financing model used by many independent renewable developers, where projects can be originated, permitted and progressed through auction support before being sold to long-term owners. Capital released through a sale can then be redirected into later projects in the development pipeline.
The August auction shows strong competition for that pipeline. A lower average award value puts greater pressure on capital cost, financing assumptions and expected energy yield, particularly for projects that still face several years of turbine, construction and grid-delivery risk before commissioning.
The next German onshore wind auction closes for bids in November. Bentheim Süd, Rhein-Mosel and Losheim now have their support awards, but the engineering programme still has to convert 102.2MW of successful bids into 15 connected turbines operating between mid-2028 and early 2029.
