Markets

Germany Awards 192 MW With L1 Bid Of €0.0386/kWh

While there has been a consistent decline in winning tariffs in Germany PV auctions over the years, the last two auction rounds went slightly up, which is likely to go down again in the next round following the MIP expiry and the module price drops resulting from the Chinese solar program restructuring.

Anu Bhambhani
  • Bundesnetzagentur of Germany has announced the winners of its 182 MW solar power auction in which it finally awarded 192 MW in the form of 37 projects
  • At least 14 winning projects will be developed in Bavaria and 7 in Brandenburg
  • Winning tariffs ranged between €0.0386 ($0.045) per kWh and €0.0515 ($0.059) per kWh, with an average bid volume of €0.0469 ($0.054) per kWh

The Federal Network Agency of Germany (Bundesnetzagentur) has awarded a total of 192 MW to solar power projects with more than 750 kW of system capacity. The auction results were also announced for on-shore wind power projects, both of which were tendered on October 1, 2018.

The tariffs were capped at €0.0875 ($0.10) per kWh.

The solar power auction saw the lowest awarded (L1) bid reaching €0.0386 ($0.045) per kWh, while the highest awarded bid reached €0.0515 ($0.059) per kWh; the average awarded bid level was €0.0469 ($0.054) per kWh.

In comparison to the previous tender round tendered in April 2018 and auctioned in June 2018, the winning tariffs were in the range of €0.0389 to €0.0496 ($0.045 to $0.057) per kWh, with average bid being €0.0459 ($0.053) per kWh. In other words, both the lower level and the average was a little higher, while the maximum awarded tariff was a little lower in the April tender.

In all, the latest tender was oversubscribed with 76 bids equal to 551 MW, as against the total available volume of 182 MW. Finally, the agency awarded 37 bids representing a cumulative of 192 MW. At least 14 projects out of these will be developed in Bavaria and 7 projects in Brandenburg.

"For solar tenders there is still a high level of competition for EEG subsidies," said Bundesnetzagentur President, Jochen Homann. In comparison, demand was lower than supply in the wind power tender, where only 62 bids were handed in for a total of nearly 400 MW. However, 670 MW were on offer. In the end, 57 wind projects were awarded a total of 363 MW.

Not only was the wind tender 'under-subscribed,'- the winning tariffs were much higher than for solar, ranging from €0.050 to €0.063/kWh, with an average of €0.063/kWh.

When looking at the solar winners, Enerparc again scored high with six projects, which, however, is much less than in the last round, when it won over half of the bids. TEP Merkur and Hallertauer Handelshaus each won 5 projects.

The complete list of winners is available on the website of the agency.