Germany has concluded its ground-mounted solar auction round for December 1, 2024
Bundesnetzagentur received bids totaling more than 4 GW capacity for this 2.148 GW round
Most of the winning projects will be located in Bavaria, with the agency awarding 916 MW capacity for the region
Bundesnetzagentur, or Germany’s Federal Network Agency, has awarded 2.15 GW of capacity in an oversubscribed ground-mounted solar PV auction round conducted on December 1, 2024.
This round was oversubscribed by more than 2 times as it received 524 bids totaling 4.708 GW capacity for the tender round that offered 2.148 GW capacity to interested bidders. The agency finally picked 242 winning bids for 2.15 GW capacity.
“The number of bids received in the open-space tender once again significantly exceeds the tender volume. The ongoing high level of competition is leading to a further reduction in the award values. The need for funding for new open-space systems is therefore falling even further,” said President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller.
The volume awarded in this round is the same as the one awarded for the July 1, 2024 ground-mounted solar PV tender, which also attracted more than double the capacity on offer (see Germany Awards 2.15 GW In July 1, 2024 Utility-Scale Solar Tender).
Winning tariffs for this round ranged from the lowest €0.0388 ($0.040)/kWh to the highest €0.0495 ($0.051)/kWh. The average weighted winning bid of €0.0476 ($0.049)/kWh is almost 6% below the previous round’s €0.0505/kWh. The agency points out that the last time such low award values were achieved was in the bidding round of February 2019 when the average winning bid was below €0.05/kWh (see Solar Fares Better Than Wind In German Auctions).
Maximum awarded capacity will be located in Bavaria, which claimed 916 MW of the total, followed by 213 MW in Schleswig-Holstein, 192 MW in Lower Saxony, 176 MW in Baden-Württemberg, and 170 MW in Brandenburg.
The agency says it awaits the implementation of Solar Package 1 to increase the maximum capacity of a single open-space solar project to 50 MW, increasing it from the limit of 20 MW as of now. The package, once approved by the European Commission, will also bring in regulations for special solar systems like agrivoltaics (see German Federal Government Approves Solar Package).
The agency will conduct the next round of open-space solar auctions on March 1, 2025.
Bundesnetzagentur recently launched a 2.625 GW solar tender for open-space systems on agricultural and disadvtanged lands, capping tariffs at €0.0680/kWh (see Germany Announces 2.625 GW Solar Auction).