Analysis 03: Future Scenario—OWF Development Within German EEZ

Abstract

Political commitment regarding offshore wind energy supply asks for offshore demands in the German North Sea, precisely within Germany’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). There exist different scenarios for the EEZ utilization in the future, summarized in LOICZ report 2010 (Lange et al. 2010). At this juncture, the so-called scenario B1 is the most interesting one for this study here. Scenario B1 defines the EEZ as an energy park separated into different stages of expansion of offshore wind turbines. An energy supply of 30 GW is politically planned till 2030, but that amount is not limited, and it cannot be excluded that further OWF expansion will be commissioned. Regarding the available areas within the EEZ, it is concentrated on one of the strongest possible realizable expansion called B1-2030much. Such an expansion shall supply around 90 GW of energy. The North Sea areas covered by wind turbines based on the scenario B1 and the expansion ‘2030much’ is illustrated in Fig. 6.1. The specified area equates to 8,590 10-MW wind turbines in the atmosphere model METRAS, being set in a horizontal distance to each other by 1,990 m. Hence, the wind turbines are evenly spread over the OWF district.