Solar dominates wind in Germany’s first ‘innovation tender’

Germany’s fourth wind-only auction this year again fell short of target, while solar PV-based projects dominated the country’s first ‘innovation tender’, in which stand-alone renewable energy projects competed alongside those paired with storage systems.

The country’s energy regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), received 25 bids for 310MW in the latest wind-specific round – 84% of the 367MW available. It excluded three bids for 26MW due to “formal errors”.

Successful bid prices ranged between €61.70/MWh and €62/MWh, with a weighted average price of €61.90/MWh. The range narrowed from €55-62/MWh in the country’s most recent wind-only tender in July, while the weighted average rose from €61.40/MWh.

The auction regulator has previously acknowledged that state-level permitting difficulties were deterring developers from competing at auction.

In a separate, but concurrent, tender, the BNetzA awarded contracts to 73 projects with a combined capacity of 677MW in its ‘innovation tender’, having excluded 14 bids for 71MW due to “formal errors”.

Developers competed for a fixed – rather than sliding – premium on top of wholesale market prices, and would receive no funding in the event of negative prices.

Of the successful projects, 28 bids were for hybrid schemes – paired with storage – with a combined capacity of 394MW. Just one of these was for wind (7.2MW generation capacity, 3.9MW storage capacity). The hybrid projects were selected for their ability to stabilise power output to the grid and help to better integrate renewable energy.

There were also 45 individual projects – not paired with storage – with a combined capacity of 283MW that were successful in the innovation tender. No wind projects were successful in this part of the tender.

The hybrid projects will receive market premiums ranging between €19.40/MWh and €55.20/MWh, while successful bids had a volume weighted average of €45/MWh.

The individual systems will receive market premiums ranging from €9.60/MWh to €30/MWh, while successful bids had a volume weighted average of €26.5/MWh.

The next wind- and solar PV-only tenders will take place on 1 December 2020, with the next ‘innovation round’ scheduled for next year.