It found support given under Germany's Renewables Energy Act (EEG) does not distort competition. Projects, located in the North and Baltic Seas, will be paid a premium on top of the market price for electricity.
The commission said the support is "limited to what is necessary" to getting the investment for the projects. EC said investment costs amount to €29.3 billion.
Support from the EEG will help up to 7GW of offshore projects currently operating or under construction. The EC said all of the developments are due to be online by 2019.
The EC also concluded the investment would allow new electricity providers to enter the market, thereby increasing competition.
Projects that will be able to receive state aid are: , Nordsee One, Arkona Becken Südost, Veja Mate, Borkum Riffgrund 2, Borkum West I & II, Global Tech I, Nordsee Ost, Butendiek, , Borkum Riffgrund 1, , Meerwind Sud/Ost, Wikinger, Baltic 2, MEG I, Deutsche Bucht, Amrumbank West, and Sandbank.
Germany doubled the amount of grid-connected offshore wind in 2014 by adding 142 offshore wind turbines totalling 528.9MW to the grid, according to the data from Deutsche WindGuard. This year, the organisation expects up to 2GW of offshore wind capacity to be newly connected to the grid.
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