HAMBURG 2026: German wind sector issues storm warning

Well, as you can expect, it's very busy here.

For a week, I think they're going to be expecting about 40,000 visitors.

But overall, I think the vibe seems to be fairly positive, especially for the onshore wind sector.

I think people have been talking a lot about how much permitting has improved over the last few years.

So they're very happy.

But there's a large pipeline of projects to work on.

They've got fairly clear routes on the market.

So in some respects, business is pretty booming.

As you say, the German sector in particular is in road health right now with construction activity, you know, really high levels.

Yes.

From some of the reporting, including your own that's appeared on Renews.biz, there appear to be some clouds on the horizon.

What's the industry saying about this, Sian?

Well, I think at the moment, the main concern among investors and then, of course, the supply chain are mainly around upcoming regulatory changes.

So, of course, in Germany, the government has published recently draft update EEG regulations that kind of govern the whole of the onshore renewable sector and then they put forward also a proposed grid package.

The EEG, my main objective is bringing in a new CFD support mechanism and then the grid package will mean quite a few other changes, a lot of regulatory changes around how the grid is used, so that will affect asset owners and particularly concern things like key dispatch.

So the problem with those at the moment is that developers aren't really sure exactly how these proposals will look in practice when they come in.

Ideally, they'll come in early next year.

They don't know exactly how they'll be implemented, but what they've told me is they're pretty sure that these changes will change the business case for onshore wind.

And speaking to the developers that I've spoken to over the last couple of days, they've told me that what that means at the moment is that investments and capital flows into the sector are already slowing down.

Banks are really nervous about how the CFDs are going to work.

They're not very happy or they're not really sure about the EPA market in Germany.

That's something that's relatively new for them.

So everyone's kind of knocked around to a halt.

But everything's slowed down as people are kind of taking a wait and see approach.

There's a lot of frustration, I think, because the sector has got itself into quite a good place.