Wind energy in Germany is awarded a crucial role in increasing the share of renewable energies in the electricity mix to 65% until 2030, especially in light of the federal government’s recent decision to phase out coal-based electricity until 2038. In addition to the targeted expansion of wind energy, Germany will be struggling with thousands of wind turbines at the end of their service life in the next years. To advance the expansion of wind energy and to increase its efficiency, repowering is deemed a promising way to deal with the upcoming changes in wind energy use. This study assesses Germany’s repowering potential in 2021–2040. It estimates how many of the existing wind turbine sites in Germany can be used for repowering without violating recently recast geographical restrictions while at the same time meeting proper spacing criteria for repowered wind turbines. The results from fifteen scenarios indicate the repowering potential in Germany to be highly impacted by the recast geographical restrictions and wind turbine categories used to repower. Compared to the energy contributed by onshore wind in the baseline year 2021, the best-case scenario could provide 110%. In contrast, the worst-case scenario could provide 40% of potential wind energy generation in 2040. The highest potential wind energy generation is reached under low distance restrictions of 500 m to surrounding settlement areas. The results indicate repowering alone to be unable to substantially increase the share of wind energy in Germany’s energy mix over the next two decades. Without expansion, the contribution of wind energy to Germany’s energy mix will diminish. However, despite the growing number of old wind turbines in Germany, repowering still offers more efficient exploitation of the wind resource.

在德国，风能在到2030年之前将可再生能源在电力结构中的比重提高到65％方面起着至关重要的作用，尤其是考虑到联邦政府最近决定在2038年之前逐步淘汰煤基电力。为了扩大风能，德国将在未来几年的使用寿命末期与数以千计的风力涡轮机作斗争。为了促进风能的扩展并提高其效率，重新供电被认为是应对即将到来的风能使用变化的有前途的方法。这项研究评估了德国2021年至2040年的发电潜力。它估计了德国现有多少个风力涡轮机站点可用于供电，而又不违反最近重新铸造的地理限制，同时又满足了重新供电的风力涡轮机的适当间距标准。15种情况的结果表明，德国的重装潜力受到重铸的地理限制和用于重装动力的风力涡轮机类别的强烈影响。与2021年基准年陆上风能产生的能量相比，最佳方案可以提供110％。相比之下，最坏的情况是到2040年将提供40％的潜在风能发电。最大的风能发电是在距周围居民区500 m的低距离限制下实现的。结果表明，仅在未来20年中，仅靠供电就无法显着增加风能在德国能源结构中的份额。如果不进行扩展，风能对德国能源结构的贡献将减少。但是，尽管德国的旧风力涡轮机数量不断增加，但重新供电仍然可以更有效地利用风力资源。