Renewable

October 12 (SeeNews) - Germany is inviting both local and Danish solar projects to participate in a 50-MW solar power capacity tender, the first such cross-border auction in Europe.

The deadline for bids submission is November 23 and the maximum bidding price per kWh is EUR 0.1109 (USD 0.12), the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagetur) said today. The winners will be selected based on the price they offered, regardless of the location of the solar photovoltaic (PV) park. Only projects no bigger than 10 MW are allowed to participate.

Rainer Baake, State Secretary in Germany’s energy ministry, said that this tender proves that Germany is ready to work closely with its neighbours on promoting renewable energy. “We want to fully evaluate the experience gained in this process with Denmark, and to draw on it in future plans for cooperation with other European partner countries,” Baake added.

In July Denmark and Germany signed a cooperation agreement envisaging the mutual opening up of auctions for ground-mounted solar capacity, in line with a requirement by the European Commission. The cooperation must be mutually beneficial and have a genuine impact on the energy transition in the two countries. As part of the deal, Denmark will also allow German power plants to bid in an auction planned for this year.

The electricity will be physically imported into the other country.

By December 1 Germany is also expecting bids in another solar auction targeting domestic capacity only. The Bundesnetzagetur said developers will be allowed to bid in both the cross-border and the national auctions, which is expected to boost competition further.  

The national auctions currently use the "pay-as-bid" model, while the auction open to Danish capacity will rely on the "uniform pricing procedure", in which the worst successful bid to be accepted sets the price for all other winners.

So far, the average contract prices in Germany's five national tenders have reached a low of EUR 0.0723/kWh.