Germany starts 3rd onshore wind tender for 1 GW

Germany has launched its third onshore wind tender with a target of 1 GW and a bidding cap of EUR 70 (USD 83.5) per MWh, unchanged from the previous two tenders, even though competition has driven prices much lower.

In the second onshore wind auction, the average successful bid arrived at EUR 42.8 per MWh. Most of the capacity was won by citizens' co-operatives.

The deadline for submissions in the third round is November 2, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagetur) said today. Power take-off contracts will be awarded under the "pay-as-bid" model.

In the second tender, bids in the areas where the grid requires upgrades stood at 108.55 MW, far below the limit of 322 MW. As a result, bidders in the third auction will be able to compete for up to 430.55 MW 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.

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 feed-in tariffs 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.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.19)

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