Germany's first-wave wind farms outlived their EEG subsidy — keep them running, replace them or scrap them, all three lose money.
About 16 GW of Germany's onshore wind capacity, mostly built between 2000 and 2005, has now run past the 20-year window of the EEG (Renewable Energy Act — the law that paid wind farms a fixed price per kWh). Once that window closes, operators have three options: Weiterbetrieb (keep running, sell at the wholesale price), Repowering (tear down and replace with a new 6 MW machine), or Rückbau (dismantle the turbine and clear the site). Roughly 6,500 turbines lost EEG eligibility in 2024 alone. None of the three options pays for itself at today's prices.
01The pain
Germany's oldest onshore wind farms are running without a paycheck. About 16 GW of capacity, mostly built between 2000 and 2005, has run past the 20-year window of the EEG (Renewable Energy Act, the law that paid wind farms a fixed price per kWh).1 Three options remain. All three lose money.
One is Weiterbetrieb: continued operation at the wholesale "capture price" (the average price a wind farm earns). Capture prices for ageing 1.5–2 MW turbines dropped through 2024–2026 as midday solar floods the grid. The law also requires a paid Weiterbetriebsgutachten (a structural-safety certificate written to the DNV-GL-SE-0263 standard) every two to four years at €5,000–€15,000 per turbine.2 Deutsche WindGuard warned in 2024 that sub-1 MW units no longer cover their running cost.2
Two is Repowering: tearing down old turbines and replacing them with new 6 MW units. That needs a fresh permit under BImSchG (the Federal Immission Control Act, Germany's industrial-emissions law). A June 2024 reform tried to speed this up; the end-to-end timeline still runs five to seven years. New 250-metre turbines often do not fit the original site under setback rules (minimum distance from houses and roads).34
Three is Rückbau (dismantling) at €300,000–€500,000 per turbine, and the operator must already hold a Rückbau-bond on file.5 About 6,500 turbines lost EEG eligibility in 2024 alone. The trade press expects 30–40% to be scrapped rather than repowered.5
Further reading
- 1 Bundesverband WindEnergie (BWE) — "Weiterbetrieb und Repowering": Germany's onshore-wind trade association explainer on the post-EEG decision tree facing operators of pre-2005 wind farms (German): wind-energie.de
- 2 Windmesse — "Repowering, Rückbau, Weiterbetrieb": BWE-Verband summary of the Deutsche WindGuard 2024 study on the Weiterbetriebsgutachten frequency, per-turbine cost (€5–15k every 2–4 years) and the sub-1 MW running-cost warning (German): windmesse.de
- 3 Fachagentur Wind und Solar — "Repowering": government-funded competence centre on the BImSchG permit pathway, the June 2024 reform, and the setback-rule constraint for new 250 m turbines (German): fachagentur-wind-solar.de
- 4 DNV Germany — "Repowering, Weiterbetrieb oder Rückbau": certifier-side comparison of the three options for the post-EEG operator, including the DNV-GL-SE-0263 standard the Weiterbetriebsgutachten is written to (German): dnv.de
- 5 agrarheute — "Windräder am Ende der EEG-Vergütung: Rückbau oder Weiterbetrieb": rural-economy trade journal on the Rückbau cost band (€300–500k per turbine), the Rückbau-bond rule, and the 6,500-turbines-end-2024 cohort plus the 30–40% scrap estimate (German): agrarheute.com
02Who solves this today
Six vendors operating in the German market that publicly market themselves as solving some slice of the post-EEG wind cliff — Weiterbetriebsgutachten and structural-inspection providers on the Weiterbetrieb side, plus PPA brokerage, Direktvermarktung and forecasting infrastructure that lifts the wholesale capture price. Each homepage was checked live on the date of writing. The list is intentionally narrow.
Adjacent vendors were considered. DNV (dnv.com/dnv.de) authors the DNV-GL-SE-0263 standard the Weiterbetriebsgutachten is written to, but its public lifetime-extension service pages returned 404 at the date of writing; re-check planned, not listed until a clean 200 fetch lands. 8.2 Consulting Group (8p2.de) mentions "Weiterbetrieb" only in passing on its homepage without a named Weiterbetriebsgutachten product. Wölfel (woelfel.de) markets "Structural Health Monitoring" for blades, towers and foundations but does not name a Weiterbetriebsgutachten product on its homepage. TÜV NORD (tuev-nord.de) is widely known as a Weiterbetriebsgutachten certifier but its wind-energy service pages returned 404 from the catalogue WebFetch on the date of writing. in.power (in.power.de) is a Direktvermarkter for ageing wind portfolios but the homepage refused the connection at fetch time. Inclusion is not endorsement — each entry above passed only a self-marketing check, not a quality or fitness review.
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Operators discussing this
These are real German wind operators talking about this pain in their own words on the Photovoltaikforum. They are the reason this page exists.
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«Solange so eine Anlage noch gut läuft sehe ich da keine Notwendigkeit! ... Darf ich den Überschuss einspeisen? Was erhalte ich dafür (Börsenpreis sollte es schon sein).»
"As long as such a plant is still running well I see no need [to replace it]. May I feed in the surplus? What do I get for it (it should at least be the wholesale-exchange price)."
Nachfolgeregelung für EEG-Anlagen (Post EEG) · Photovoltaikforum — 6 distinct operators on page 1, thread opened January 2020 and still receiving posts in 2025 — a multi-year operator-to-operator arc on the post-EEG decision.
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«Der Ausbau wird intensiv durch Repowering (Austausch alter Anlagen) vorangetrieben.»
"Expansion is being driven intensively through repowering (replacement of old installations)."
Neuigkeiten zur Windenergie (page 1048) · Photovoltaikforum — 8 distinct posters on the latest page alone, posts from 9 April 2026; the thread has run 1,048+ pages over multiple years discussing operator-side Weiterbetrieb and Repowering decisions.