Germany's Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur, recently announced the successful awarding of contracts to 88 bids for solar installations on buildings and noise barriers, totaling 191MW in cumulative capacity. The auction, which received a robust response with 184 bids and a combined volume of 373MW, demonstrated a keen market interest in expanding solar energy infrastructure across the country.
The prices of the winning bids ranged from €0.088 to €0.0998 per kWh, reflecting a competitive landscape. The volume-weighted average award price stood at €0.0958 per kWh, marking a €0.6 per kWh decrease compared to the highest award price in the previous auction, which was €0.108 per kWh.
Geographically, the awarded projects were distributed nationwide, with North Rhine-Westphalia leading with 14 projects totaling 27MW. Other notable states with high numbers of awards included Lower Saxony (13 awards, 25MW), Bavaria (13 awards, 21MW), and Baden-Württemberg (11 awards, 20MW).
In terms of capacity, the majority of winning bids (64 projects) were for volumes up to 2MW, while the largest bid secured an impressive 17MW capacity. The oversubscription of this auction round, nearly double the expected demand, contributed to the intensified competition and subsequently lower award prices.
Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur, expressed satisfaction with the outcome, stating, “This auction round was nearly twice oversubscribed, and the strong competition has led to lower award prices. It is pleasing to see how the awards are spread over the country, with at least one winning bid in each federal state.”
In a previous innovative auction held in October, Germany awarded contracts to 32 solar-plus-storage projects, reaching a cumulative capacity of 408MW. The high level of participation, with 53 bids and 779MW of capacity, highlighted the growing interest in renewable energy projects.
Notably, this success contrasts with a previous innovative auction earlier in the year, where only three projects with a combined capacity of 83.5MW were accepted out of the 400MW auctioned. The varying outcomes underscore the dynamic nature of the renewable energy market in Germany.
