The first tenders for rooftop solar and onshore wind energy in Germany for 2023 have garnered significantly stronger interest than last year, but remained undersubscribed as the tendered capacity was increased substantially.
The Federal Network Agency offered almost 3,210 MW in the tender for onshore wind energy with a bid deadline of February 1. As many as 126 proposals with a total capacity of 1,502 MW were submitted. Although the received bids are below the targeted capacity, the interest by far exceeds the level of the previous round when projects for only 203 MW were filed.
Overall, Germany aims to allocate 12,840 MW of onshore wind capacity in four rounds in 2023, which is almost four times as much as the 3,279 MW awarded in 2022.
In the first round for 2023, seven bids were excluded from the competition due to formal errors.
To revive the flagging interest in renewable energy tenders caused by higher construction and operation costs, the price cap for onshore wind was raised at the end of 2022 to EUR 0.0735 (USD 0.078) from EUR 0.0588 per kWh. In the latest round, the submitted bids were in the range of EUR 0.0724 per kWh to EUR 0.0735 per kWh with the volume-weighted average price standing at EUR 0.0734 just below the cap.
The auction for solar installations on buildings and noise barriers awarded 195 MW of capacity divided into 87 projects. The agency targeted a capacity of 217 MW and received 94 bids for a combined 213 MW. Seven projects were excluded from the bidding.
The volume-weighted average price came in at EUR 0.1087 per kWh and bids ranged from EUR 0.09 to EUR 0.1125 per kWh. The price cap was raised at the end of last year from EUR 0.0891 per kWh.
The next calls of the tenders for onshore wind and rooftop solar systems are with deadlines on May 1 and June 1, respectively.
(EUR 1 = USD 1.062)
Source: renewablesnow
