Germany's Bundesnetzagentur or the Federal Network Agency has launched the innovation tender for 2024 following the existing tariff cap for its innovation tenders. The current maximum value of €0.0918/kWh will remain in effect to 'ensure continued stable conditions' in this segment, it explained.
The €0.0918/kWh tariff was an increase of 25% over the maximum feed-in-tariff (FIT) for hybrid solar PV and battery energy storage systems, announced in March 2023. It followed the previous tender where only 1 bid came in for the hybrid projects, which the agency attributed to increased costs for the components (see Germany Increases Innovation Tender Tariffs).
"Without a new determination, the maximum value would have fallen back to the legal value of 7.28 ct/kWh," explains the agency. "Based on experience from previous bidding rounds, it can be assumed that no bids would be received at the legally stipulated maximum value or at least a bid quantity that would be significantly below the tender volume."
It believes that in the absence of a high ceiling tariff, the innovation tenders will not be able to make their contribution to the goal of transformation to a sustainable and greenhouse gas-neutral power supply.
A high value will create an enabling framework for competition so companies can bid adequately, it adds.
The innovation tender launched has a tender volume of 583.25 MW for bids on arable and grassland regions in disadvantaged areas. Awarded projects will have 30 months to come online.
To be eligible, projects must have either onshore wind or solar PV technology as one of the renewable energy sources. These can be added to storage, geothermal and hydropower systems.
Interested companies can submit bids till May 1, 2024. Details are available on the agency's website.
The 583.25 MW capacity is out of the 800 MW the agency plans to award in this category in 2024. The next innovation call will take place on September 1, 2024.
Bundesnetzagentur has already announced ceiling tariffs for ground mounted solar auctions in 2024, retaining these at €0.0737/kWh, while raising that for rooftop solar to €0.01125/kWh (see Germany Announces Price Caps For 2024 RE Auctions).