Germany allocates 696 MW of solar in vastly undersubscribed auction

As many as 109 projects with a total capacity of 696 MW have been selected in the latest German solar auction which remained vastly undersubscribed, the Federal Network Agency said on Wednesday.

The solar tender with a June 1 deadline was supposed to award 1,126 MW of capacity for ground-mounted solar parks and solar plants on structural systems that are neither buildings nor noise barriers. However, the regulator received 116 bids with a combined capacity of only 714 MW.

The main reason for the weak interest could be the significant increase in the tendered capacity which was doubled to 3,600 MW in 2022 from 1,850 MW last year. Supply chain disruptions and unpredictable prices could also have made investors more cautious, the Federal Network Agency said.

Six bids were excluded from the competition due to formal errors while another proposal was not accepted because the limit for solar plants on arable or grassland areas in the federal state from where the project comes had already been reached.

The most successful bids totalling 399 MW came from the state of Bavaria, followed by Schleswig-Holstein with 72 MW and Lower Saxony with 45 MW.

Bids in the tender ranged from EUR 0.0487 per kWh to EUR 0.0569 per kWh. The volume-weighted average award price achieved was EUR 0.0551 (USD 0.058) per kWh, above the EUR 0.0519 per kWh from the previous round.

The next round of the solar auction in this category is scheduled for November 1, 2022.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.056)

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