Germany Awards 153 MW Under 4th PV Auction Of 2019

• Germany has awarded 153 MW capacity under its fourth round of PV auctions for the year 2019, with most of it to be located in Bavaria
• Winning bids ranged between €0.0459 to €0.0520 per kWh, as against the benchmark tariff of €0.075 per kWh
• Next joint solar and wind power auction will be held on November 1, 2019, while technology specific tenders for solar and wind energy will issued on December 1, 2019

Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has announced the winners of its fourth PV auction round in 2019. In the October tender 153 MW of total capacity was awarded against the 150 MW offered. However, the tender was majorly over-subscribed attracting bids for a cumulative capacity of 648 MW.

In contrast, the onshore wind turbine tender met more or less the same fate as in previous editions this year – it was heavily under-subscribed. For 675 MW capacity offered only 25 bids were handed in for 204 MW capacity, all of which was awarded, for an average winning bid of €0.062 ($0.069) per kWh.

Back to solar, the winning bids for the tender ranged between €0.0459 and €0.0520 ($0.051 and $0.058) per kWh with the average winning bid at €0.0490 ($0.055) per kWh—much less than the €0.075 ($0.084) per kWh ceiling tariff and also much lower than average wind winning tariff.

The average solar winning bid is over 10% less than the €0.0547 per kWh in the previous auction of June 2019 when 205 MW was awarded. The original capacity tendered back then was also 150 MW (see Germany Awards 205 MW PV In 3^rd PV Auction Of 2019).

Out of the 27 projects awarded in the fourth round, most of these will be established in Germany's southern state of Bavaria. Winners have time till November 7, 2019 to claim the win with their second security deposit.

Going forward, the agency disclosed the next joint solar and wind power auction will be held on November 1, 2019, while technology specific tenders for solar and wind energy will be issued on December 1, 2019.

The complete list of winning projects is available on the agency's website.

A Reuters report points out that renewable energy developers in Germany haven't been too enthusiastic about bidding in the last two years owing to an 'unreliable political framework' which has led the Federal Network Agency to caution that a sharp fall in applications for green power project threatens Germany's energy transformation.

Nonetheless, in the case of solar things look very bright in Germany.  The government has recently agreed to remove the 52 GW feed-in tariff cap, which is supposed to be reached next year, and put the country on a path to achieve 98 GW solar by 2030 as part of its Climate Protection Program (see New German Solar Target: 98 GW By 2030).