Austria lifts prices and capacity for upcoming onshore wind auctions
Austria lifts prices and capacity for upcoming onshore wind auctions | Windpower Monthly
Austria’s climate and energy ministry, the BMK, said yesterday (14 March) that the country would now auction 582MW in 2024 and up to 500MW in 2025.
That includes the next tender, scheduled for 14 May, which will now offer up to 287.5MW. Subsequent auctions planned for 2 August, 18 October and 12 December will each offer an additional 100MW.
Meanwhile, the maximum bid value was increased from €0.093 to €0.09.60/kWh.
The rising prices echo responses from other European countries, including the UK, amid the impact that high inflation and interest rates, plus supply chain difficulties, have had on recent, frequently undersubscribed wind energy auctions.
The BMK also reformed the compensation it will offer for differences in yield due to wind conditions, with high yield areas facing higher surcharges.
For wind farms on mountains over 1,400 metres above sea level, which make up a large part of Austria’s alpine geography, the surcharge was increased from up to 7.66% to up to 8.13%.
Industry reaction
Austria’s wind energy association, IG Windkraft, welcomed the announcement.
“We are very pleased that the market premium ordinance has come into force. This is an important step for planning security for the years 2024 and 2025,” Stefan Moidl, managing director of IG Windkraft, said.
He added: “Due to rising system prices, high interest rates and inflation, this higher value is a necessary prerequisite for future wind power expansion… The approval procedures must be streamlined and more staff hired by the approval authorities.”
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.