Impact of offtake mechanisms on wind turbine selection and design in North and Central Europe

Abstract: Wind power has become a major supplier of electricity in the European market in the last years. In 2020, 13% of electricity generated on the European continent was wind energy (onshore and offshore) and these shares are projected to increase in the next years due to reasons such as climate change and the energy security aspect. While an increased share of renewable electricity in the electricity mix has a lot of benefits, it also comes with challenges. One of these challenges are the electricity market design and the offtake mechanisms that find application. If national expansion goals for wind energy are to be achieved, wind power plants need to be profitable and hence be an attractive and competitive investment. If wind farms are running within the prevalent merit order system where the energy source with the highest marginal cost sets the electricity price, there is a risk of low or even negative income at times of high wind or solar irradiation. The unforeseeable and potentially low revenues also lead to worse conditions in the financing of wind projects, resulting in high financing costs. To counteract this challenge, governments have set up policy frameworks and subsidies and owners of wind farms have adopted different offtake mechanisms such as pay-as-produced PPAs (power purchase agreements) and baseload PPAs. Additionally, many operators hedge their assets, meaning that risks are reduced by deployment of different offtake mechanisms. All of this is where this study ties in. The objective was to evaluate how the design of markets and offtakes and their respective pricing level and predictability impact the best turbine fit in North and Central Europe. To get to an answer, two key onshore markets within the region have been chosen and characterized, namely Germany and Sweden. Two different turbine types, one with a low capacity factor but high rated power and one with a lower rated power but high capacity factor, have been examined in these markets in order to evaluate which turbine type performs better. A third turbine type which is a new concept in the technology demonstrator stage has been added to the study to assess its performance as compared to the existent turbines. The evaluation has been performed in form of a Use Case Analysis and Sensitivity Study. Finally, the results have been compared and generalized into key takeaways that can be transferred into other markets in the region of North and Central Europe. The study finds that different market characteristics and offtake mechanisms do in fact impact turbine selection and the best turbine fit. Important factors that have been found in this research are the key financial metric (NPV and IRR), market constraints such as a grid constraint, and offtake mechanisms and the predictability of revenues that comes with the offtake. The main impacts on wind turbine selection that can be tied to offtake mechanisms are the payment received per unit of electricity and the level of security that comes with the offtake mechanism. Constant incomes improve financing conditions, meaning that resources from crediting institutes are granted at better conditions if the income can be anticipated. For both markets, the optimal turbine fit varies depending on the boundary conditions. High capacity factor turbines have been found to be a better fit if the developing company considers the IRR as focal financial metric. If the NPV is the focal metric, the results are less clear: While low capacity turbines are a better fit for sites with low revenues from electricity pricing and lower wind conditions, turbines with high rated power benefit from high and secured electricity pricing and high wind speeds where rated power is reached. The German EEG as a special case promotes installation of high capacity turbines due to high and constant revenues per MWh. While the overall Value Pool (payment per MWh of electricity) is higher for Germany, business cases in Sweden benefit from higher turbine lifetimes.