After last year’s decline, the prices in the German auction for photovoltaics stabilized

This year, as in previous years, Germany is waiting for three rounds of auctions to support terrestrial photovoltaics. The first of them took place at the beginning of March, the next two will follow in the second half of the year. Despite the decrease in the volume of bids submitted compared to the previous round, the competitive prices did not change fundamentally. Similar to the previous round, they slightly exceeded EUR 50/MWh on average.

Germany originally planned to offer over 8 GW of power in three separate auctions for terrestrial photovoltaic power plants this year. However, the regulator adjusts the volumes of power offered in the auctions on the basis of established rules, reducing the volume of the first round to 2.23 GW. Despite the reduction in volume from the originally planned 2.7 GW, the auction offered almost half the volume compared to the previous two rounds.

According to the German network regulator Bundesnetzagentur, 569 projects with a total installed capacity of almost 4.1 GW were registered for the auction. However, the regulator had to exclude 39 bids with a total capacity of 330 MW from the auction. Compared to the previous round, in which projects with a volume of almost 5.5 GW were registered, this is a significant decrease, but the interest of investors is still relatively strong.

“The auction continues to be characterized by very strong participation. For four rounds already, the volume of bids received significantly exceeds the volume offered in auctions. Despite the increased volume of auctions, competition in this segment remains stable,” said Klaus Müller, president of the German network regulator.

The competitive prices ranged between 36.2 and 54.9 EUR/MWh, their weighted average reached 51.1 EUR/MWh. Compared to EUR 51.7/MWh from the previous round, the prices thus competed for have not changed fundamentally. Similar to previous rounds, projects dominated in Bavaria (806 MW), followed by the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein (221 MW) and Lower Saxony (199 MW).