Offshore Wind Expansion Under Pressure: Offshore Association BWO Calls for Legal Return Mechanism for Blocked Concessions
Berlin/Hamburg – Grid connection delays are threatening Germany's offshore wind expansion. According to research by NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung, TotalEnergies is expected to hand back its German offshore concessions. The German Offshore Wind Energy Association (BWO) is calling for legislative consequences – and has put forward a concrete proposal.
Strategic Review Announced as Early as June 2025 – Withdrawal Takes Shape
As far back as its press release on the N-9.4 concession award in June 2025, TotalEnergies had announced a strategic review of its German offshore concessions acquired since 2023 – at the time still with the stated aim of seeking dialogue with German authorities on possible development conditions. A year later, the situation has deteriorated significantly. According to an internal discussion paper seen by NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung, individual projects from the 2023 to 2025 auction rounds are unlikely to be realised. TotalEnergies cites grid expansion delays and changed economic conditions as reasons. The company is seeking to return the sites and also wants to recover its security deposit of 750 million euros.
TotalEnergies left specific questions unanswered. In a written statement to NDR, a spokesperson said only that developing the sites remained a priority – and that the matter concerned a proposal for dealing with the delays that had arisen. Signs of a withdrawal at JERA Nex bp are also intensifying, according to NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung: offices in Berlin and Hamburg are reportedly in the process of being wound down, and the lease on the Hamburg office has already been terminated, according to industry insiders. A request for comment to JERA Nex bp went unanswered.
Up to 50 Billion Euros at Stake
The financial scale underlines the gravity of the situation. In 2023, TotalEnergies bid almost six billion euros for wind farm sites in the German North Sea and Baltic Sea, and added nearly two billion euros in 2024 – a portfolio of around 7.5 GW. To date, the company has paid ten percent of its bid sum, approximately 800 million euros, and lodged a security deposit of 750 million euros. Two further sites with more than 4 GW went to what is now the JERA Nex bp joint venture. According to the BWO, projects with a total capacity of around 16 GW from the 2023 to 2025 auction years are affected overall. At an investment volume of around three billion euros per gigawatt, this translates into a project value of roughly 50 billion euros on the wind farm side alone.
The consequences of a withdrawal would also be felt in the public budget: 90 percent of the revenues from the offshore auctions are already earmarked to cap grid fees and thus electricity prices. If the more than seven billion euros from TotalEnergies' bids were to fall away, that money would be missing elsewhere – with tangible consequences for further grid expansion.
BWO: Voluntary Return Instead of Years-Long Blockage
The BWO is proposing a legally regulated mechanism that would allow project developers to voluntarily return awarded sites within a set deadline. "The federal government has failed to include a return option for awarded projects in the offshore wind auction rules. Moreover, the existing auction design has placed considerable risks on companies that they can barely influence themselves – particularly in the case of severely delayed grid connections," says BWO Managing Director Stefan Thimm. "There is a real danger that sites for up to 16 gigawatts of installed capacity could be blocked."
The BWO proposal envisages a return window of four weeks following the entry into force of the legal basis. Returned sites are to be re-tendered swiftly under the new auction design from 2027 onwards – by means of a special tender if necessary. Companies returning sites may not bid again on the same sites and must transfer findings from preliminary investigations to the Federal Network Agency. Security deposits are to be refunded in full, while the nature conservation component already paid is not. "Billion-euro projects with no realistic prospect of realisation pose a genuine threat to the supply chain. We expect the federal government to implement this proposal from the offshore wind industry without delay," said Thimm.
Source: IWR Online, Jun 06 2026