London — Germany added just 74 MW of new onshore wind capacity in May, the lowestin almost four years when monthly additions averaged around 400 MW,latest data from the federal grid regulator show Monday.
* Onshore wind added only 74 MW in May, lowest since Aug 2014
* Rush for legacy feed-in-tariffs saw 18 GW added since 2014
* Switch to auctions will bring boom to halt in 2019
The boom in onshore wind installations is expected to fade towards theend of the year and come to a halt in 2019 after a rush for legacyfeed-in-tariffs saw 18 GW onshore wind added over the past four years.
For 2018, wind lobby groups still forecast 3.5 GW of legacy projects tocome online under old feed-in-tariff rules before the switch tocompetitive auctions from 2019 onwards.
So far this year, onshore wind added just over 1.5 GW bringing totalinstalled onshore wind capacity above 52 GW, the data shows.
Over 90% of projects auctioned last year are not expected to get realizedbefore 2021.
The latest auction in May was even undersubscribed for the first timewith prices actually rising.
According to the BWE wind lobby group, price pressure stemming from the'badly designed 2017 auctions' has led many developers to question iftheir projects can compete and in some cases led developers to 'upscale'turbine sizes which may delay projects by up to three years.
'Several thousand of MW of projects' are currently stuck in the approvalprocess, the lobby group said.
Wind output in the first half of the year was up by 14% at 55 TWh, butJune output registered the first major on year decline this year, down byalmost 20% compared to June last year, according to TSO data aggregatedby Fraunhofer ISE.
The H1 data includes over 9 TWh offshore wind with offshore capacity ontrack to reach 6 GW by end-2018.
