According to documents seen by “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç, the government will make available 1GW in 2019, 1.4GW in 2020 and 1.6GW in 2021. The same amount will also be available to solar PV projects.
Joint technology-neutral tenders featuring unspecified "new pricing mechanisms" will also be held: 250MW in 2019, 400MW in 2020 and 500MW in 2021.
These volumes are in addition to previously agreed annual allocations: for wind, 2.8GW a year between 2017 and 2019, and 2.9GW annually from 2020.
The document also includes proposals for new measures requiring projects to be equipped with lighting systems to increase visibility from aircrafts.
New wind farms must be fitted with "adequate night-lighting" from 2020 in order to receive funding under Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), according to the document.
Meanwhile, existing projects must be retrofitted with such lighting, unless this is "not economically feasible", the document states.
The coalition conservative CDU/CSU and social democrat SPD parties will vote on a bill including these volumes and lighting stipulations next week, a government source stated.
In a joint statement, deputy chairmen of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group Carsten Linnemann and Georg Nüßlein said: "We have agreed multi-technology innovation tenders to try out new eligibility conditions that will lead to more grid and system compliance and more competition in renewable energy.
"What is proven in the innovation tenders, we want to transfer to the general tenders."
They added: "It is also crucial for us that we return to more acceptance of wind power. For this reason, we will provide needs-based lighting for wind turbines from 2020 onwards."
The CDU/CSU and SPD parties will meet in the autumn of 2019, they stated, to discuss "concrete acceptance measures", "funding conditions" and "further development paths" for how Germany can meet its 2030 renewable energy target of 65%.
The German Wind Energy Association’s (BWE’s) president Herman Albers welcomed the announcement despite offshore wind being "forgotten" and the autumn 2019 meeting coming "very late".
The BWE had previously called for an increase in volume tenders, clearance of permitting backlogs and clarity on grid expansion to help save jobs in the wind power industry.
Following today's announcement, Albers added: "It’s good that the energy stalemate is coming to an end.
"In particular, wind energy, as a service provider of the future energy industry, has been waiting for this signal for a long time. But today’s agreement leaves many questions unanswered."
Andreas Wagner, managing director of the offshore wind energy foundation also criticised the omission of offshore wind in the agreement, describing it as a "wasted opportunity".
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