Latest Solar Auction in Germany Oversubscribed by 3.5 Times

Solar Power Generation In Europe To Rise by 50 TW in 2024, Germany To Lead The Way

The latest solar PV auction for ground-mounted capacity in Germany concluded with three and half times oversubscription with 574 bids totalling 5.5 gigawatts (GW), surpassing the 1.6 GW of capacity up for auction. The German Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur,  published the results for the tender that sought 1.61GW of solar PV capacity.

According to the agency, out of the 574 bids submitted, 124 were awarded for a total capacity of 1.6 GW, with the average price set at €0.0517/kWh (US$0.062/kWh), 1.3 cents below the previous round. The lowest bid accepted was €0.0444/kWh, while the highest accepted bid was €0.0547/kWh. Bavaria was the region with the most capacity awarded, with 604MW and 63 bids, followed by Brandenburg with 197MW and Saxony-Anhalt with 167MW.

“Never before has there been such large participation in a tender for ground-mounted installations,” said BNetzA head Klaus Müller, adding that the competition had resulted in low awarded support per kilowatt hour of electricity. The next round of solar auction will take place on 1st March 2024 with 2.2GW of capacity tendered at a maximum value of €0.737/kWh

The push for renewable energy in Germany has been gaining pace amid the push for solar and wind energy as concerns continue to grow on traditional from of energy due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Hence, there is a considerable rise in the auctions. Last year in November, the auction for 191 MW rooftop solar power projects was oversubscribed by 195 percent, according to the country’s Federal Network Agency. Apart from that, another 32 solar and storage projects with cummulative capacity of 408 MW were oversubscribed with a total of 53 bids and 779MW of capacity received, nearly double the 400MW limit set for the auction.

Another trend emerging from Germany also throws light that wind power auctions have usually been undersubscribed whereas solar auctions have ended up being oversubscribed. The southern German state of Bavaria has the most number of solar installations in the country equivalent to 1/5th of all the newly installed renewable power capacity in Germany, as per a German news agency. After Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony took the lead in solar installations respectively in the country.