Munich, Germany: Last Friday, 26th April, marks one of the most significant days for the airborne wind energy industry so far with the passing of the “Solarpaket I” in the German parliament. The now passed bill—which might have a name unconnected to wind energy—was in the works since August 2023 and includes a variety of changes to Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG – Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz) with a major focus on solar. While those are good and needed changes, the bill is much bigger news for the airborne wind energy industry as it officially recognizes and includes AWE (or “Flugwindenergie” in German) as a technology, and thus grants a specific feed-in tariff for it. This is a world first and shows the technology´s relevance and importance are now getting recognized by policy makers.
Just as the Renewable Energy Sources Act was a huge success for conventional wind power and solar in its early days, this guaranteed remuneration will now play a crucial role to accelerate the development, implementation, and upscaling of airborne wind energy in Germany, Europe and worldwide. The recognition significantly reduces the technology’s risk in its early adoption phase and provides banks and investors with greater certainty, enabling a better funding environment for airborne wind energy companies. Furthermore, the bill will increase AWE’s visibility and potential towards R&D topic selection and funding – both at national and EU level.
Kitekraft CEO Maximilian Isensee on the passing of the bill: “Being recognized in the German EEG is a tremendous success for the whole airborne wind industry and validates our work of pushing the frontiers in wind energy. We are walking in the footsteps of the wind energy industry but at a time when technical development can be achieved much faster and cost efficient. Airborne wind is on the cusp to commercialization and this instrument will ease and accelerate this process.”
This is a mayor milestone on Kitekraft’s commercialization path. In combination with the recent connection of Kitekraft’s test-site to the German power grid, focus is now shifted towards utilizing the tariff as soon as possible.
Kitekraft extends gratulations and thanks to the whole airborne wind energy industry and all parties involved in making this adoption possible.
