Germany's Economy Minister Katherina Reiche on Wednesday said companies may return previously auctioned offshore wind farm sites, provided they pay a penalty to transmission system operators, as mounting economic pressures continue to batter the sector.

The move comes as increasing financing costs, overcapacity in certain sea areas and declining revenue expectations have made it harder for developers to deliver on awarded projects.

In a letter to Reiche, the heads of eight of Germany's 16 states called on her to amend a bill before the German lower house of parliament

They advocated for a one-time, legally secure option to return projects and for the sites to be retendered promptly

Current site owners would be excluded from those new tenders, according to the letter

Tenders for offshore sites that had been scheduled for this year were postponed until 2027 after no bidders came forward in August 2025

Oil majors BP and TotalEnergies emerged in 2023 as the winners of a 7-gigawatt (GW) offshore wind site auction in Germany but have since faced supply chain inflation and dwindling revenue expectations