Germany starts 1-GW onshore wind tender

The start of a tender for 1 GW of onshore wind power in Germany was announced today with a bidding cap of EUR 70 (USD 79) per MWh.

The deadline for submissions is August 1, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagetur) said.

As previously announced, Germany has taken measures to limit the expansion of wind power capacity in areas where the grid requires upgrades, especially in the north. In this second onshore wind tender there is a limit of 322 MW for contract awards to projects in the network expansion area that includes the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bremen and Hamburg, and the northern part of Lower Saxony.

In May Germany completed its first such tender, awarding contracts for 807 MW of capacity at an average rate of EUR 57.1/MWh. Total of 65 of the 70 winning bids were made by citizens' co-operatives developing community wind projects.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), Germany had a bit more than 50 GW of installed wind power generation capacity at the end of 2016. Deployment was supported by fixed surcharges offered until the start of 2017 when the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) 2017 entered into force. Now, wind and solar projects bigger than 750 kW have to compete in tenders.

Germany's first tender received 256 proposals for a total wind capacity of 2.1 GW. The second tender in August will be followed by a third in November.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.13)

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