Solar projects win 202.6 MW in mixed German tender

Only solar projects bid in Germany’s 200-MW joint wind-and-solar tender on November 1 and won support for 202.6 MW of capacity to be built in eight federal states.

The tender was heavily oversubscribed with 103 proposals for over 514 MW of solar capacity, the Federal Network Agency, also known as the Bundesnetzagetur (BNetzA), announced Monday. Of these, 37 were successful and secured surcharges of between EUR 48.8 (USD 54) and EUR 54.7 per MWh. The average weighted award is EUR 54/MWh, slightly down from the EUR 56.6/MWh in the April 2019 wind-and-solar tender.

The biggest winner was Bavaria with 76.1 MW of secured solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein follow with 34 MW and 31.5 MW.

The expansion of Germany’s onshore wind capacity, meanwhile, remains constrained by red tape, limited grid access in the windiest regions of the country and other issues. These explain the lack of interest in this and past tenders.

BNetzA also said today it has awarded surcharges to 50 biomass power projects with a combined capacity of 56.7 MW in a separate tender. It got bids for a combined capacity of 76.8 MW, which is three times more than the volume in the previous biomass tender in April 2019.

The newly awarded surcharges for biomass power stand at between EUR 93.5 and EUR 165.6 per MWh.

Germany’s next tenders for wind and solar are scheduled for December 1, while the next biomass tender will be at the start of April 2020.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.1)

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