Wind energy: Traffic light will significantly miss its 2024 expansion target

When it comes to expanding wind energy, the traffic light government will clearly miss its own interim target for 2024. This emerges from an answer from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection to a question from CDU MP Christoph Ploß star is present.

By the end of September 2024, “a total output of 62.5 gigawatts for onshore wind” had been installed, according to the paper. However, the Renewable Energy Act sets an interim target of 69 gigawatts for 2024, and by 2030 an output of at least 115 gigawatts should be on the grid.

According to the ministry, only around 1.5 gigawatts have been added net this year. However, more than 10 gigawatts of onshore wind power had already been approved by the end of September, according to the ministry, “so that a significant increase in onshore wind turbines can be expected in the next few years to achieve the expansion target in 2030.”

There are no legal interim targets specified for the expansion of offshore wind power; by 2030 it should be 30 gigawatts. By the end of September 2024, according to the ministry, a total output of “9.2 gigawatts of offshore wind had been installed”, an increase of only around 0.74 gigawatts since the beginning of the year.

The CDU MP Christoph Ploß harshly criticizes the traffic light policy: “These numbers are the nail in the coffin for the traffic light coalition’s energy policy,” said the opposition politician star“because after shutting down the nuclear power plants completely prematurely, it is now also missing its expansion targets for renewables.” This handling of the electricity supply in the industrial country of Germany is “highly irresponsible” and is causing rising electricity prices.

The announcements by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and the traffic light coalition “once again proved to be hot air,” says Ploß. “The traffic light coalition cannot even deliver on the expansion of renewable energies, which is emphasized especially by representatives of the Green Party in every Sunday speech, and even misses its own goals by miles.”

In order to advance the energy transition, the federal government has set itself a number of concrete goals. By 2030, at least 80 percent of electricity should come from renewable energies, such as wind or solar. According to the federal government, in the first half of 2024 it was 61.5 percent of the electricity generated in this country. A major problem in expanding wind power on land is the availability of land. By 2032, two percent of Germany’s surface area should be available for wind turbines by law.