The German government is in talks with the wind industry about state guarantees for turbine manufacturers to keep – and even expand – production capacity in the country in efforts to meet Germany’s ambitious 2030 renewable energy targets.

According to industry media Recharge News, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Robert Habeck said this in a speech at the opening of a wind energy conference in Husum, Germany.

”Manufacturers know that there will be a large wind power market in Germany in the future, both onshore and offshore. The orders are not really coming in yet, but I would still like turbine manufacturers to maintain capacity now and expand it if necessary,” Habeck stated at the conference, according to Recharge.

Last year, 2.4GW of new wind energy capacity was installed in Germany, but the German government wants to expand the market to 10GW annually by 2026, which is necessary to reach the target of 80% renewable energy in the electricity supply by 2030, compared to just over 50% today.

However, before the market reaches this level, there will be fewer orders, but at the same time, wind turbine manufacturers will need to maintain and expand capacity if they are to be able to deliver the 10GW annually in the future.

In the interim period, where orders might not be of sufficient volume to justify maintaining or expanding production capacity, the German state will provide guarantees, which was allowed under a recently created EU rule, the ”Temporary Crisis and Transitional Framework”, explained Habeck.

If the wind industry builds capacity now, awards orders to component suppliers, rents cranes or expands ports, ”then we guarantee that the orders will come,” Habeck said, according to Recharge News.

”This will not lead to us permanently subsidizing the market, but rather to us bridging this phase of maybe two to four years until the market actually lets the orders come on their own,” he added.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Kristoffer Grønbæk)