German plans to install wind turbines in the North Sea will likely be scaled back because of unforeseen construction difficulties and funding limitations owing to the financial crisis, PriceWaterhouseCoopers said.

The windfarms that actually get built may have a capacity to generate 16,000 megawatts of power in 2025 instead of a planned 25,000 megawatts, the consultant said in an e-mailed statement. The conclusions are based on a survey of 26 offshore wind developers that plan to supply electricity to millions of homes.

"Many of these engineering problems have been known for years, but when it comes to putting them into practice developers have encountered difficulties, especially when far offshore and when the weather is bad," said Heiko Stohlmeyer, a renewable-energy financing consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in an interview.

"Enormous" challenges in getting equipment to areas of the sea where windfarms are being built and then servicing the equipment are presenting obstacles for the projects, Stohlmeyer said. Construction is taking longer with backlogs and high demand for large turbines, and there is a limited supply of boats and crews equipped for offshore work.

Installing the 16,000 megawatts of power capacity will cost about 48 billion euros ($60 million), or 3 million euros for each megawatt, the report said. At the end of 2007, there were 1,034 megawatts of offshore capacity from wind turbines.

Much of Germany's electricity grid was built in the 1950s and 1960s and will not be able to accommodate planned capacity increases when more offshore wind turbines are installed in the North and Baltic Seas. E.ON AG, the country's largest utility, and Vattenfall Europe AG have said they want to sell their grids as competition grows and additional investment is required to keep the system functioning.

Private Financing

"Getting financing from private investors has also become a problem," said Stohlmeyer. "The appetite for offshore projects is still there but banks are now limiting the amount of credit they provide because of the crisis."

Banks and insurers worldwide have reported about 200,000 job cuts and more than $970 billion in credit losses and markdowns since the global financial crisis began, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That has slowed investment in new construction projects.

Growth of new wind-turbine installations in Germany has slowed from a peak in 2002 and never reached the industry's own target. The domestic wind-energy industry forecasts a 55,000- megawatt capacity, including offshore and land-based turbines, by 2020 in Europe's largest power market, more than double the existing figure.