Alternative Energy: Germany approves onshore wind farms expansion

German authorities have approved hundreds of megawatts in additional capacity at onshore wind farms. The price at which it awarded the projects was below expectations, pointing to stronger competition.

The German Economy Ministry announced Friday it had approved 807 megawatts of capacity at onshore wind parks.

The projects were granted at an average price requiring a subsidy of 5.71 eurocents ($0.89) per kilowatt hour of power, marking a price reduction of 20 percent on previous deals.

Approval procedures had been closely watched by turbine manufacturers, project developers and utilities after recent offshore wind farm auctions included bids for zero-subsidy deals for the middle of the next decade as the industry is requested to cut costs.

Friday's auction was the first for onshore wind projects under the latest changes to the renewable feed-in tariff law in Germany accompanying the nation's transition from fossil fuels to green energy excluding nuclear.

Read more:  Germany approves onshore wind farms expansion | Business | DW | 19.05.2017

China’s wind power industry faces slowdown as tariff cuts loom

Mainland China’s wind farm developers and equipment suppliers face a substantial drop off in installation volume in 2018 when Beijing’s proposed cuts to wind power tariffs are expected to take effect, industry executives warned.

Profitability will also be hampered by further power grid bottlenecks and intensifying competition over price and sales volume amid wider capacity oversupply, they told the China Windpower conference.

“What worries us is [plant] utilisation, which has been falling much more than expected,” said Alvario Bilbao, the Asia Pacific chief executive of Gamesa, one of the world’s largest wind turbine makers.

The Spanish firm has stayed in the China market – the world’s largest - despite its market share dropping to 0.27 per cent in 2014 from 36 per cent a decade earlier due to stiff competition from domestic rivals.

Read more: China’s wind power industry faces slowdown as tariff cuts loom | South China Morning Pos