Inside BKW's Return to German Wind and the Two Tariffs It Bought

BKW has agreed to buy a 33.6 MW wind farm under construction in Baden-Wurttemberg from ABO Energy. Seven turbines, commissioning in the first quarter of 2027, its first German onshore wind purchase in over a decade. The 20-year subsidy attached to it is not one subsidy.

Key takeaways

• BKW signed an agreement in early October 2026 to acquire the 33.6 MW Ohringen-Karlsfurt wind farm in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, from ABO Energy, which developed the project and is building it turnkey.
• The wind farm comprises seven Nordex N-133 turbines of 4.8 MW each, with a hub height of 164 metres and a total height of around 230 metres, commissioning in the first quarter of 2027.
• Five of the seven turbines won a 20-year feed-in premium in Germany's November 2024 onshore wind tender, which awarded bids between EUR 69.3 and EUR 72.3 per MWh at a volume-weighted average of EUR 71.5 per MWh.
• The other two turbines were permitted only in June 2025 and won their premium in the February 2026 round, which awarded between EUR 51.9 and EUR 56.4 per MWh at a volume-weighted average of EUR 55.4 per MWh.
• Enerdatics records 93 German onshore wind transactions since the start of 2024, of which three carry a disclosed value, and two of those three figures were identified by Enerdatics rather than disclosed by the parties.

Why does one wind farm carry two different subsidy prices?

Because its turbines were permitted two and a half years apart, and German support is fixed when an auction is won rather than when a project is built. Germany awards onshore wind a feed-in premium under the Renewable Energy Sources Act, or EEG: a fixed top-up added to market revenue and held for 20 years. The award comes from a competitive tender, so the price depends on which round a turbine enters.

Ohringen-Karlsfurt entered two. The first five turbines were approved in January 2022 and took their premium from the November 2024 tender. The last two were approved in June 2025 and had to wait for the February 2026 round. Between those rounds the German clearing price fell by roughly a fifth, from a volume-weighted average of EUR 71.5 per MWh to EUR 55.4 per MWh.

The effect is a single asset with a split revenue base. Twenty-four megawatts sit on the older and more generous vintage and 9.6 MW on the newer one, so around 29 percent of nameplate capacity is supported at a materially lower rate, with nothing about the turbines differing. The Enerdatics record gives each round's range and average rather than this project's own strike, so the exact gap may be narrower or wider. The direction is not in doubt.

What did the two abandoned turbines cost the project?

They cost it the simplicity of a single tariff. ABO Energy originally planned nine turbines and dropped two in early 2022, leaving seven. Only five of those carried approval at the time, and recovering the other two took until June 2025, which pushed them into a cheaper auction.

This is the ordinary arithmetic of German consenting rather than a development failure. Projects are permitted turbine by turbine, and each delay re-dates that machine's exposure to the tender market. A developer who waits to auction the whole farm at once risks the award it already holds. One who auctions in tranches accepts whatever the later round pays.

For BKW the consequence is practical: a farm contracted for 20 years above the market price, at a blended rate it has to calculate rather than read. The project is expected to generate more than 80 GWh a year, enough for around 25,000 households, and sits in the Karlsfurtebene and Viehweide forest areas at 460 to 485 metres, not the flat coastal land German wind is usually associated with.

What is BKW actually changing by buying it?

Its geography. BKW's German onshore wind portfolio has been concentrated in the north, and this takes it into Baden-Wurttemberg in the south-west, lifting installed German onshore capacity from 183 MW to around 217 MW. The 19 percent increase matters less than the correlation, because southern German wind does not blow at the hours northern German wind does.

It is also a return rather than an expansion: BKW's first German onshore wind investment in more than ten years, through a developer relationship rather than an auction. It has bought this way before. When it took 125 MW of Swedish wind from Eolus it bought mid-construction and paid Eolus to finish the job, and the share price behind that $206 million wind deal was a tenth of the enterprise value. Ohringen-Karlsfurt is the same shape.

Enerdatics records 93 German onshore wind transactions since the start of 2024 and three disclosed values among them, a disclosure rate of about one in 31. Two of the three came from Enerdatics rather than the parties: Encavis paying $76.43 million for the 28.5 MW Everswinkel farm in December 2024, or $2.682 million per MW, and $26.35 million for the 18 MW Dannhausen III farm in September 2024, or $1.464 million per MW. The third, Enel's $93.91 million purchase of a 51 MW operating portfolio in December 2025, prices at $1.841 million per MW. Dannhausen III is the only in-construction comparable, so one 2024 print is the whole visible benchmark for a part-built German wind farm.

What does the deal signal for German onshore wind?

It signals that tariff vintage is becoming a diligence item rather than a footnote. As clearing prices fall round by round, a project permitted in stages carries a weighted average strike that cannot be read off its nameplate or its commissioning date, and two farms of the same size and age can sit a fifth apart on contracted revenue.

It also marks how much of the German market one seller is setting. ABO Energy has been the seller in 15 of the 93 onshore transactions Enerdatics records since 2024, more than any other party, and it sold two in-construction German wind farms inside four days this month, this one to BKW on 12 October and the 22.8 MW Remblinghausen Sud project to Encavis on 15 October. The pace is tied to its restructuring, the same pressure visible when ABO Energy's Poland and Hungary sale to PPC priced a pipeline under restructuring.

The wider direction is a market where support is the asset and its expiry is the event, as German wind showed at the far end of that cycle when Germany's first offshore wind farm changed hands the year its tariff fell by three quarters. Ohringen-Karlsfurt is the same logic at the start of the cycle, with 20 years of certainty for most of it and slightly less for the rest.

Frequently asked questions

How much is BKW paying for the Ohringen-Karlsfurt wind farm?The consideration was not disclosed. Enerdatics records only three priced German onshore wind transactions since the start of 2024, and the single in-construction comparable is Encavis buying the 18 MW Dannhausen III farm for $26.35 million in September 2024, or $1.464 million per MW.

Why do five of the turbines earn a higher tariff than the other two?German onshore wind support is fixed when an auction is won. Five turbines approved in January 2022 took a premium from the November 2024 tender, which averaged EUR 71.5 per MWh. The other two, approved in June 2025, won in the February 2026 round, which averaged EUR 55.4 per MWh.

How large is BKW's German onshore wind portfolio after the deal?Around 217 MW, up from 183 MW, and its first capacity in Baden-Wurttemberg after a portfolio concentrated in northern Germany.

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