IN Brief:
- BSH has released a preliminary revision of Germany’s offshore Site Development Plan.
- The draft outlines an expansion pathway from approximately 11GW to 70GW by 2045.
- Public comments are invited until 3 December 2026 before further planning decisions.
Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has started consultation on a new revision of its offshore wind Site Development Plan, outlining how installed capacity could increase from approximately 11GW to 70GW by 2045. The preliminary proposal, published on 22 October, is accompanied by a draft scope for strategic environmental assessment and is open for responses from authorities and the public until 3 December 2026.
The revision would amend and extend the Site Development Plan adopted in 2025. BSH says its proposals are informed by the draft revision of Germany’s Wind Energy at Sea Act, meaning the planning assumptions remain dependent on decisions over the legislative framework. Publication of a preliminary draft does not allocate construction contracts, approve individual wind farms or establish firm energisation dates for every site.
The agency’s programme ties proposed turbine areas to the offshore transmission connections that would carry their electricity to shore. New areas cannot deliver their planned output without compatible offshore and onshore grid infrastructure, including cable routes and connection dates that match the wind farms’ construction programmes. Decisions on marine space and export capacity therefore have to be coordinated within the plan rather than treated as separate approvals.
The process must also accommodate the physical constraints of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, where wind energy development shares marine space with shipping, habitats, existing installations and other uses. Boundaries, turbine spacing, environmental restrictions and grid routes can alter how much capacity a designated area can support. BSH has released maps and supporting study material alongside its consultation documents, which remain subject to comment and possible revision.
The German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) welcomed the longer term planning horizon on 23 October but called for changes to the investment framework. In particular, it advocates indexed, two-sided contracts for difference for future offshore wind tenders, rather than the two-stage approach under discussion. That is a proposal from the trade association, not a funding or auction mechanism approved by the government.
BWO says the preliminary draft divides already defined areas into four plots at N-14, eight at N-16 and two additional plots, N-6.9 and N-12.7. It also identifies 13 further areas as a longer term outlook. According to the association, no decisions on the latter group are expected within the current procedure, leaving them outside the set of areas being determined immediately.
Power density is another feature of the proposed development areas. In zones 4 and 5, BWO identifies a corrected average of 7.3MW per square kilometre, below the 8MW per square kilometre ceiling referenced for new offshore areas. The association argues that lower density can reduce wake losses, which occur when turbines extract energy from the wind and alter the flow reaching machines farther downwind.
Wake losses depend on turbine arrangement, wind conditions and the characteristics of individual machines, so capacity per unit area cannot be assessed solely by adding nominal turbine ratings. Greater spacing may improve electricity yield per installed megawatt, while reducing the number of turbines that can be fitted into a given footprint. The draft attempts to balance those competing physical considerations with the programme’s capacity ambitions.
The capacity of the offshore export connection also constrains how turbines can be arranged. Installing more generating capacity than a connection can carry may increase its utilisation in moderate winds, because an entire array rarely produces at maximum output simultaneously. At times of stronger production, however, the connection rating can require some otherwise available generation to be curtailed; the economics depend on the additional output captured at other times.
BWO objected to a blanket ten per cent level of grid overbuilding and argued that the optimum should be determined by the economics of individual locations. It cited commissioned research indicating that economically suitable levels can vary between five and ten per cent. Those figures are part of the association’s response, not a published determination that every proposed offshore connection should operate at a specific ratio.
The draft also sets out a commissioning sequence running towards 2038, which will need to align wind farm construction with export system availability. Offshore substations, cable production, onshore network reinforcement and turbine installation all have substantial procurement and construction lead times. Altering the order of sites can therefore affect how contractors and grid operators plan vessels, factory capacity and connection works, even before an individual wind farm reaches a final investment decision.
Until the current revision is decided, BWO notes that the existing 2025 Site Development Plan remains the operative framework in its amended form. BSH will review consultation responses, the environmental assessment scope and the relevant legislative proposals before settling the next planning steps. Written comments are due by 3 December 2026, making that date the immediate milestone rather than any forecast of newly installed capacity.
