WindGuard Insight:

Welcome to WindGuard Insight and thank you for taking the time! First of all we would like to know: In your opinion, what were the most significant regulatory changes in Germany we saw in 2018?

Knud Rehfeldt:

The 100-days-law, stipulated in the coalition agreement, was finally passed in December 2018 in the form of an energy law package (Energiesammelgesetz). In this law, tenders for additional 4000 MW for onshore wind are scheduled for the years 2019 to 2021. Unfortunately, the originally planned additional tenders for offshore wind did not make it into the law. Because of the delays in legislation in 2018, we experienced a vacuum in the development of new wind energy projects. This led to layoffs and relocations abroad in the German wind industry.

WindGuard Insight:

What would you say were the most significant technical developments in 2018?

Axel Albers:

We saw further efforts at cost reduction by means of technological advancements in turbine technology and also in the area of offshore infrastructure. Aside from that I would count the realisiation of Wind-PV-Hybrid-Projects and the application of storage technologies in wind farms among the most important developments in 2018. I should also mention the further upscaling of the turbines themselves, and that applies onshore as well as offshore.

WindGuard Insight:

WindTime for a little introspection! What would you say were the most important changes for WindGuard in 2018?

Gerhard Gerdes:

Well, we expanded our company to two currently very important markets: China and India. We founded Dé Fēng Wèi in China after being more and more active in the market in the last three years. In the next step, we decided to also push into the Indian market and set-up Deutsche WindGuard India. The first steps of this new members of the WindGuard family are very promising and I look forward to the future developments.

Aside from our international expansion, we have also worked very hard on our home base. We are working in a very competitive market environment and have to discuss and adapt our processes and approaches continuously. Therefore we   put a lot of effort into streamlining our processes to further improve the efficiency of our services. The driver behind this effort is that we are very well aware that we can only hold our leading market position if we constantly challenge our processes and adapt new ideas and procedures.  

Knud Rehfeldt:

We hope that the political decision for additional tenders in Germany sends a signal that the use of wind power in Germany will continue. This will hopefully give companies the confidence to invest in new wind energy projects. The recent discussions at the climate change conference in Katowice and also the debate on the reduction of CO2 emissions in the traffic industry by implementing electronic mobility shows: the expansion of renewable energies is of crucial importance on a national and international level. For example: If we introduce E-mobility, but built new coal plants to meet the subsequently increasing electricity demand, we will actively sabotage reaching our climate change objectives.