Transmission system operator TenneT has told the German government that it cannot continue with the country’s programme to connect offshore wind farms to the grid.

The company claims that it has reached saturation point of “human, material and financial resources”.

TenneT has written to the German Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Environment Ministry to warn them that “the construction of connecting cables for offshore wind farms in the North Sea is no longer advisable and possible under current conditions and in the current speed”.

Currently, there are nine projects in preparation to connect wind farms in the German North Sea, and TenneT says it will honour these contracts. However it told the government that “if additional offshore wind farms are to be connected, general conditions must be improved”.