Germany’s auction for large-scale solar concludes at €0.0429 per kWh

Germany’s October tender for PV projects ranging in size from 750 kW to 10 MW has recorded a new low price record. For the first time, the average bid fell below €0.0500/kWh and reached €0.0491/kWh, as the Federal Network Agency announced on Monday.

The lowest successful bid was €0.0429/kWh, while the highest was only €0.0506/kWh. “Especially large systems can be built relatively inexpensively because of scale effects”, explained Jochen Homann, President of the Federal Network Agency. A total of 20 solar projects with a total capacity of 222 MW were awarded in the tender.

Three of the successful bids had a volume of more than 20 MW, the agency said. These bids were given for solar parks on so-called “structural facilities” (in German “Bauliche Anlage”). In addition, bids on farmland and grassland areas in disadvantaged areas were particularly successful. In fact, 12 of the 20 selected projects are going to be built in arable and grassland areas in Bavaria in less-favored areas. These projects have a combined power of 45 MW.

According to the 18 successful bids in the June tender, the annual quota of the Freestate was thus exhausted. Four other bids, which could still be successful after the awards, were therefore not awarded any more, according to the authorities.

In addition to Bayern, which recorded the largest number of projects as in the previous tenders, the German authorities selected two projects each for Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and a single project for  Hessen and Baden-Württemberg. Like Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg has also released arable and grassland areas in disadvantaged areas.

The tender was again several times oversubscribed. A total of 110 bids with a total volume of 754 MW were submitted to the Federal Network Agency. The average bid size was 6.9 MW. Successful bidders have now time to deposit their guarantees until Nov. 6.

In about two weeks, the Federal Network Agency will publish a paper with further information on the tender.

In the tender held in June, the average price was still €0.0566/kWh. Compared to the round in February, the surcharge had already fallen by one cent per kWh – the biggest decline between two rounds since the introduction of the tender for photovoltaic systems.