Lower Saxony’s Minister-President Olaf Lies visited Cuxhaven on 11 November 2026 and warned of a downturn in the offshore wind industry. If expansion continues to stall, up to 23,000 of the sector’s approximately 49,000 jobs could be lost over the following four years, according to industry estimates, the SPD politician said at the wind turbine factory of Siemens Gamesa. Talks with companies about the future of offshore expansion were scheduled in Cuxhaven.
The number of potentially at-risk jobs is an estimate based on the possibility that expansion continues to falter. It does not describe job losses that have already occurred. The warning reflects concern that wind farm projects already awarded may not be built under changed economic conditions, leaving manufacturers and suppliers without orders.
According to the Lower Saxony State Chancellery, between 2023 and 2025 companies were awarded the right to build wind farms in North Sea and Baltic Sea with a capacity of around 16 gigawatts. The projects involve potential investment and procurement worth more than 50 billion euros. However, interest rates, material costs and construction costs have risen significantly since the awards were made. The state therefore sees a risk that several projects will not be carried out.
Lower Saxony is calling on the federal government to adjust the conditions for projects already awarded so that they can still be built. Where that proves impossible, companies should be allowed to return sites so they can be awarded again. The state is also calling for any tender cancelled in 2026 to be made up through an additional, binding tender by the end of 2030 at the latest.
For future wind farms, Lower Saxony is also advocating a fixed electricity price for operators. If the market price exceeds this level, operators should repay the surplus. In the state’s view, a dependable domestic market should help keep production and jobs in Germany. The proposal therefore affects more than just the coast: Lies pointed out that the supply chain extends as far as southern Germany.
At the end of October 2026, eight states had already sent a joint letter to Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche . Alongside Lower Saxony, they were Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. The demands thus come from both coastal and inland states.
After the letter, Reiche said that an orderly return and reallocation should be made possible for individual projects that were no longer economically viable. Companies should not, however, be released from their financial obligations. She also pointed to shortcomings in the existing auction system: economic and technical risks had not been adequately considered in the 2023 and 2024 awards.
The dispute therefore concerns two related questions: how sites already awarded can be used, and the conditions under which future projects should be put out to tender. No decision on Lower Saxony’s demands was announced during the visit to Cuxhaven.
Editor: Daniel Mayer (Article created with AI assistance).