“Only bids for solar projects were awarded a contract. In the auction, PV was the technology that offered the lower cost,” said Jochen Homann, president of the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), on the occasion of the first joint tender for ground-mounted solar PV projects and onshore wind farms.
A total of 32 contracts with a combined capacity of 210 MW were awarded by the German authority. The average final price for all the projects was €0.0467 ($0.0577) per kWh. This is slightly above the final price of €0.0433 per kWh for the solar-only tender, held by the German government in February.
The Bundesnetzagentur has further revealed that bids from successful developers ranged from €0.0396 per kWh to €0.0576 per kWh. The list of awarded projects published by the agency shows that Cologne-based EPC company, Enerparc secured the largest amount of projects with 12 of the 32 contracts. Other well-known companies, such as IBC Solar, EnBW, and Juwi can be found on the list. Vattenfall also secured a contract for a project.
Among the successful bids are five projects totaling 31 MW on agriculture and grassland areas in disadvantaged areas in Bavaria, and three equaling 17 MW in Baden-Württemberg.
In the first joint tenders for solar PV systems and wind farms on land, there were, for the first time, the so-called distribution network expansion areas, in order to achieve a better regional compensation for new plants. “This special regulation did not have a significant impact on the successful projects,” the Federal Network Agency said.
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Most sucessful bids are in distribution network development areas. Without the regulation, however, at least one wind power bid would have been successful.
The joint tender was doubly oversubscribed, according to the authority, as bids were submitted for projects with a total capacity of 395 MW. The average price of all PV bids was €0.0482 per kWh, while average price for on-shore wind turbines was €0.0723 per kWh.
Only three bids were excluded for formal reasons. The successful bidders now have to deposit second-security on time before the results are final and the Federal Network Agency publishes further statistics.
This year, the Bundesnetzagentur will hold another 200 MW tender for PV and onshore wind power on November 1.
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Tokenism. Any more than that would have cut into the wasteful economically and environmentally unfriendly (but polically powerful) coal generation interests. This is notihng to celebrate,
Does Germany plan on holding auctions to supply renewable energy during a particular time of day (say, the 7 hours which usually have the highest spot prices , i.e. 5pm to midnight) sometime? That might give wind more of a fair chance, and match what the grid needs anyway.