Germany starts 150-MW biomass tender

Chipped wood. Author: Douglas O'Brien. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

Germany on Thursday launched its first biomass power tender with a bidding deadline of September 1 and a target of 150 MW, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagetur) announced.

The bidding cap is set at EUR 0.1488 (USD 0.17) per kWh for new projects with capacities of 150 kW or more. The off-take contracts will be awarded under the pay-as-bid rule.

Existing biomass power plants will also be allowed to compete in the tender. They can get 10 extra years if they have less than eight years left under their current contracts. For these plants the bidding cap is EUR 0.169/kWh.

Deployment of renewable power plants in Germany was supported by fixed surcharges, or feed-in tariffs (FiTs) until the start of this year, when the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) 2017 entered into force. Now, wind and solar projects bigger than 750 kW and biomass and biogas plants of 150 kW or more have to compete in tenders.

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