The French group and British group won auctions to build sites in the North Sea and Baltic Sea with capacities 7.5 gigawatts (GW) and 4 GW respectively for a combined 12.6 billion euros ($14.5 billion).

They would be together able to power over 10 million homes.

But German public broadcaster NDR and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that TotalEnergies wanted to offload its sites, citing delays to improved grid infrastructure that would transport the power.

They also reported there were growing signs that BP would not follow through on the project.

TotalEnergies said the company was conducting a review, "taking particular account of the delays in grid connections announced by German transmission system operators".

British firm BP had already hived off its plans to develop the site to a small, separately registered joint venture, Jera Nex BP.

A spokesman for the company said the challenges of the project were "well understood", and that the firm was working with the German government to "seek the best way forward".

Grid operator TenneT told AFP it was "concerned" by the reports.

"Our offshore grid connections are already in the planning and implementation phase," a spokesman said.

Previously planned wind farms "could be delayed by several years" if the government did not step in with new tenders and buyback options to make sure the sites were developed, he said.

Germany's current total offshore wind capacity is under 10 gigawatts, meaning the projects' failure would deal a severe blow to the development of green power in Europe's largest economy.

Berlin aims to roughly triple its offshore wind capacity to 30 GW by 2030.

Neither TotalEnergies nor BP has told Germany's network regulator that they intend to abandon a project or that they expect delays, an economy ministry spokesman told AFP.

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TotalEnergies

BP