The German federal maritime and hydrographic agency (BSH) has sent a letter to developers saying federal network agency BnetzA will only build converters up to appoximately 120 kilometres from the mainland.
The letter's author, Dr Nico Nolte, head of sea management at BSH said: "In some sea areas far away from the coast the Federal Grid Agency [BneztA] does not foresee converters in the next ten years.
"I do not see the need to continue licensing procedures at the moment for wind farm applications which are situated in sea areas where, in the next ten years no converter will be built," he added.
According to the letter, the changes affect proposed projects in zones 3, 4 and 5 of the German Exclusive Economic Zone.
BSH said the current and planned projects in zones 1 and 2 (nearest the coast) would be enough to fulfill the limits set out in Germany's recent Renewable energy act EEG.
The EEG limits offshore wind capacity in Germany to 6.5GW by 2020.
.png)
.png)
