Germany drafts a 70 GW offshore path; Ofgem tenders the Hornsea 3 link

Between October 19 and October 23, 2026, Germany's maritime agency published a preliminary draft site plan with a path to 70 GW of offshore wind by 2045, Ofgem opened bidding for the grid link of the 2,955 MW Hornsea 3 wind farm, New Zealand opened its first offshore wind permit round, and Britain gave its first Strategic Spatial Energy Plan another year.

Germany drafts sites for 70 GW, and proposes to commit only to 2038

Germany has a draft map to 70 GW of offshore wind, and a proposal to commit to only part of it. The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) opened the revision of Germany's offshore Site Development Plan (Flächenentwicklungsplan, FEP 2025) on October 22, 2026, with a preliminary draft that it says shows a path from about 11 GW today to 70 GW by 2045. The 205-page draft consults on possible sites and grid connections all the way to that target, then proposes to fix them only up to a target year, naming 2038 as one candidate on current information. Fixing sites through 2038 would bring total installed capacity to 53.9 GW at the end of that year, per the draft, which cites open questions such as hydrogen's share of offshore output and power imports through cooperation projects with neighbouring countries.

As a rule, sites in the draft carry 1,100 MW of expected turbine capacity on a 1,000 MW grid connection, a 10% overbuild the BSH says can bring substantial efficiency gains over earlier plans. From 2035 to 2045, two sites with 2.2 GW in total are to enter service each year, with up to 4.4 GW in a few years, for an average of just under 3 GW a year until the 70 GW is reached.

Germany is holding no offshore wind tender at all in 2026. The draft is built on the federal cabinet's September 2, 2026 bill amending the Offshore Wind Energy Act (WindSeeG), whose legislative process the BSH describes as not yet complete. The bill sets annual tender volumes of, in principle, 2,000 to 4,800 MW from 2027, and retroactively clarifies that no tender took place in 2026. Its explanatory notes say the cabinet suspended the 2026 round on January 28, 2026, after converter-platform manufacturing delays that came to light at the end of 2025 also affected the commissioning of the sites originally meant for it, N-10.1 and N-10.2, so that their tender would not come up empty again. The same bill calls the 2025 tenders partly unsuccessful. Authorities and the public can comment until December 3, 2026, and a public hearing follows on January 19, 2027, per the BSH's revision page.

Ofgem puts the Hornsea 3 grid link out to bid

Ofgem launched Tender Round 14 of its offshore transmission owner (OFTO) regime on October 21, 2026, for the transmission assets connecting Hornsea 3 to the grid, with an estimated value of around £3.5 billion; Ofgem says it is expected to be its largest tender round ever. The wind farm, more than 100 kilometres out in the North Sea, is due for completion by the end of 2027.

The pre-qualification document gives bidders a slightly smaller figure: an initial transfer value of £3.4bn, based on information from the developer, Hornsea Project Three (UK) Limited, a 50/50 venture between Ørsted and Apollo. Pre-qualification bids are due by 12 noon on January 14, 2027. Ofgem expects to publish shortlists in April 2027, launch the full tender in early June 2027 and announce a preferred bidder in mid-January 2028. After discussions with the developer, Ofgem has agreed to adjust the project's availability target to 96%, and it is considering changes that may mean tender-stage bidders need not have their full financing arranged when they bid.

The wind farm is due to be finished before its link's owner is chosen, and that is how the regime is built: the winning bidder buys the prebuilt cables and substations from the developer and earns an inflation-linked revenue stream for up to 25 years, subject to availability and performance.

New Zealand opens its first offshore wind permit round

New Zealand's first offshore renewable energy feasibility permit round opened on October 19, 2026, when the Round Notice, dated September 22 and approved by Energy Minister Simeon Brown, came into force. Applications must be received by 5:00 pm NZST on April 19, 2027, and each must be for a single continuous permit area within one of two areas, offshore Taranaki or offshore Waikato/South Auckland, each running from the territorial sea baseline to the outer limit of the exclusive economic zone. It is wind only, fixed-bottom, floating or both. MBIE announced the opening the same day.

Engagement with iwi and hapū takes up most of the round's mandatory conditions: four of the notice's seven cover iwi and hapū whose rohe includes some or all of the permit area or who may otherwise be directly affected. Permit holders must make reasonable efforts to engage regularly with relevant iwi and hapū and must file an annual engagement report that includes their comments "in full and without alteration." The other three require specified feasibility work to start within 12 months and reasonable and ongoing progress through the permit's term.

Britain gives its spatial energy plan another year

Energy Minister Michael Shanks directed NESO on October 20, 2026 to submit Great Britain's first Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) by December 31, 2027 instead of December 31, 2026, in a letter DESNZ published on October 23. The plan is to map potential zones, quantities and types of electricity and hydrogen generation and storage across Great Britain, weighing how different industries use land and sea, without identifying specific projects, per NESO. The direction says the extra time lets the modelling reflect updated generation cost estimates, including cost of capital, newer demand expectations and wider policy interdependencies.

The delay was first flagged in a DESNZ letter dated December 2, 2025, which foresaw "a delay of several months to the modelling process and therefore the overall timelines." The formal deadline now moves twelve months. That letter also flagged the potential effect on the Centralised Strategic Network Plan, which translates the SSEP's spatial context into network infrastructure requirements. NESO says the draft plan goes to public consultation in early 2027, and the direction says Ofgem intends to consult during 2027 on the timing of later SSEP cycles.