ABSTRACT
Wind energy, along with hydropower and solar energy, is considered to be an important technology in spearheading an energy transition (Energiewende) to sustainable and low-carbon energy resources in Germany. Germany is the EU’s largest wind energy market, the world’s third-largest market for wind energy (after China and the US) and a global forerunner in wind energy innovation (BWE, 2012; GWEC, 2014). Germany had an installed wind energy capacity of more than 34 GW by the end of 2013. This accounted for about 30 per cent of the European installed wind capacity in 2013 (GWEC, 2014; IEA, 2014). Germany’s installed capacity and market has been growing continuously since the mid-1990s (BWE, 2012; IEA, 2014). Germany has both considerable onshore wind capacity and a rapidly growing offshore capacity. The German government has targets in place for a share of 35 per cent renewable energy of the total electricity mix by 2020, 50 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050, with respect to which wind plays an important role (BMU, 2012; BMU, 2011). The market shares of wind firms in Germany are as follows:
• Enercon – about 60 per cent; • Vestas – 20 per cent; • REpower – 10 per cent; • Nordex – 4 per cent; • Bard – 2 per cent; • others including e.n.o., Vensys, Siemens GE Electric and AREVA –
remaining 4 per cent (Lema et al., 2014).
