Average price in German solar tender falls slightly to 5.18 cents/kWh

The average price in Germany's third special tender for PV projects has fallen to 5.18 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from 5.68 cents at the start of the year, reports Sandra Enkhardt in pv magazine. Germany's grid agency (BNetzA) said 51 winning bids with a combined capacity of around 301 megawatts (MW) in "disadvantaged areas" ranged in price from 4.64 to 5.48 cents/kWh. According to pv magazine, the tender was the third of its kind for PV projects above 750 kW in size. "Of the 51 awarded projects, 34 will be deployed on arable plots and grassland in the southern region of Bavaria," said the report.

Germany currently has a cap in place limiting government support for new solar PV installations to a total of 52 gigawatts (GW), a limit that could be reached this summer, according to the industry. In November 2019, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the cap would be removed, but the government has so far failed to deliver on implementation. The cap on solar power support and other hurdles to renewable energy expansion, particularly onshore wind power, have become a drag on the country's energy transition, threatening to jeopardise the country's emissions reduction and renewable energy targets.