• Germany has awarded over 264 MW of solar PV capacity to 45 winning bids in the latest round of its technology specific auctions
  • The round was oversubscribed with 186 bids coming in for 936.066 MW capacity, as against 256.955 MW offered
  • Lowest and highest winning bids discovered in this auction round were significantly lower than the previous round

Bundesnetzagentur – the Federal Network Agency of Germany has announced the results of its 7th technology specific solar PV auction in the year 2020. It selected 45 bids for a total of 264.159 MW capacity with 13 of these projects in Bavaria.

Lowest and highest winning bid for this tender round ranged between €0.0488 per kWh and €0.0526 per kWh, compared to €0.0498 per kWh and €0.0536 per kWh achieved in the last round of October 2020 (see 103 MW Awarded In 6th Tech Specific German PV Tender).

The average winning bid in this round was determined as €0.051 per kWh, a little lower than the average winning tariff of €0.0523 per kWh in the previous round.

This tender round, as previous rounds for this technology, was oversubscribed since the agency originally tendered 256.955 MW, but it received 186 bids representing an aggregate of 936.066 MW. A total of 42 bids had to be excluded from the process. The agency says ‘regrettably’ 16 bids had to be excluded from the process as these were received too late.

A large number of ‘exclusions’ were also mentioned wherein projects significantly exceeded the permitted bid amount. Bundesnetzagentur attributed it due to a ‘changing legal situation’ in the country; it might refer to the new version of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2021) which was recently cleared by the country’s Parliament (see German Parliament Passes EEG 2021; Industry Not Happy).

A list of winners for the solar PV auction is available on the agency’s website.

In comparison, the onshore wind energy tender round held on December 1, 2020 on the same day as solar PV, was oversubscribed for the 1st time this year as the agency received 96 bids with a total volume of 657.1 MW against the tendered amount of 366.9 MW. It finally awarded 399.7 MW to 58 winning bids. Winning bids ranged between €0.0559 per kWh to €0.0607 per kWh and average winning bid was €0.0591 per kWh, which means the lowest wind bids were higher than the highest solar bids.

The next tender for utility scale solar projects will be held on March 1, 2021.