Germany urged to adopt CfD-only offshore wind tender model

Germany's offshore wind trade association BWO is pressing the federal government to abandon its proposed two-stage tender mechanism and replace it with a CfD-only model, per Renews.biz. The group stated the current proposals "fall short", without specifying which design parameters it considers deficient.

The call matters for the German bidding zone because tender structure directly shapes project economics and, downstream, capture price exposure for offshore assets. A pure CfD route would give developers a fixed reference price rather than leaving them exposed to merchant risk in a second-stage process. BWO's position is that the two-stage structure introduces uncertainty that the CfD-only approach would eliminate.

No timeline for a government response has been reported. The debate arrives as Berlin is under pressure to accelerate permitting and contracting to meet its offshore pipeline commitments. Market participants should watch for any formal consultation response from the Ministry for Economic Affairs, which would set the parameters for the next tender round.