The German Federal Network Agency or Bundesnetzagentur has had a record response for its December 1, 2023 ground mounted solar tender, with significantly lower winning tariffs compared to the previous round.
As against the 1.61 GW offered under the tender, the agency received 574 bids for a total volume of 5.485 GW. Of the total interest received, 1.986 GW was for projects with an individual volume of over 20 MW.
Bundesnetzagentur says, "This makes this the bidding date with both the highest number of bids and the largest bid quantity in this technology."
It eventually selected 124 bids with 1.613 GW of volume, of which 19 had a project capacity of 20 MW each. Another 10 projects will be agrivoltaic in nature, while 2 contracts with 38 MW were awarded to projects in which drained moorland will be rewetted during the construction period.
A total of 55 projects with 828 MW capacity are proposed to be located alongside motorways or railways, and 47 projects with 530 MW of volume are planned to come up on arable or grassland.
The President of the agency Klaus Müller added, "The last round of tenders also sets a record: never before has there been such a large participation in a tender for open-space systems. With a submitted bid amount of 5.48 GW, the tender quantity of 1.61 GW was almost three and a half times oversubscribed. The competition is increasing low award values."
Winning tariffs dropped significantly below the last round with the lowest and highest winning bids determined as €0.0444/kWh and €0.0547/kWh. Bids were capped at €0.0737/kWh. The average weighted winning tariff was €0.0517/kWh, down €0.013 below the previous round's €0.0647/kWh (see Big Interest For German Ground Mounted Auction).
Bavaria once again bagged maximum awards in this auction round, winning 63 bids for 604 MW combined capacity, followed by 9 winning bids for 197 MW in Brandenburg, and 11 in Saxony-Anhalt with 167 MW. The largest awarded bid had a volume of 74 MW.
While low module prices in the market at present could be one of the reasons for this massive interest in the auction, the government has been making efforts to increase funding and ease permitting for renewable energy projects which could be encouraging developers (see German Federal Government Approves Solar Package).
Recently, BSW said it expects further demand for solar in 2024 due to continued high electricity prices and attractive funding conditions. The country installed a record high of over 14 GW new solar capacity in 2023 (see Germany's Official 2023 Solar Installations Exceed 14 GW).
Bundesnetzagentur has launched the 1st ground mounted solar tender for 2024 with a 2.23 GW volume, capping bids at €0.0737/kWh. Projects can be installed on arable and grassland areas in disadvantaged regions.
Bids will be admitted till March 1, 2024. Details are available on its website.
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