Germany's Reiche offers offshore wind licence returns as 23,000 jobs and €24bn at risk

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has offered investors the right to return already-awarded offshore wind areas they can no longer develop economically, responding to an emergency letter from eight state premiers warning of an impending breakdown in the sector.

Reiche told news agency dpa that a structured return and re-tender of sites would be enabled where projects had proved economically unviable — without releasing companies from their financial obligations.

In 2023 and 2024, offshore areas totalling around 16 gigawatts were awarded, Reiche said. She acknowledged that known economic and technical risks had not been accounted for, creating a gap between bids and actual construction.

The eight premiers' letter put concrete figures on the danger: if expansion stalls, around 23,000 of the 49,000 jobs in Germany's offshore wind industry could be lost over the next four years, with revenues falling by around 24 billion euros. Some suppliers have already begun cutting staff, the letter warned, with entire offshore hubs — including port networks and service companies — at risk.

The premiers had demanded that affected wind areas be re-tendered quickly to avoid what they called an industrial-policy risk for Germany. Reiche's concession addresses that demand directly, though the two sides had previously disagreed on how to proceed.