Few bids for onshore wind but big interest in solar in Germany’s renewables tenders
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s latest onshore wind tender failed to attract enough bidders for the total 1,500 MW on offer, the Federal Network Agency reported as it presented the results of several recent renewable energy tenders. Wind developers submitted a total of 91 bids for only 718 MW, of which the agency accepted 89 for 691 MW after excluding two bids. Successful bid prices ranged between 5.15 and six cents per kilowatt-hour. The largest allocations went to the states of Schleswig-Holstein, which had 20 successful bids with a total 173 MW; North Rhine-Westphalia, with 20 awards and 116 MW; and Brandenburg, with 18 awards and 165 MW.
By contrast, the solar photovoltaics tender was oversubscribed. Open to projects of up to 10 MW in capacity, the PV tender received 288 bids with a combined capacity of 1,504 MW. The regulator selected 103 projects totalling 620 MW. The biomass tender for a total of 168 MW, however, was also undersubscribed, with only 60 bids for 44 MW submitted. A tender aimed at innovative renewable energy technologies for a volume of 250 MW saw greater interest, with 43 bids for 509 MW filed. The regulator accepted 18 bids for a total of 258 MW, all of which included solar projects combined with storage systems.
Onshore wind power - the cornerstone of Germany's decarbonisation plans - has suffered from chronically low additional installations in the past years. The industry appears to have achieved a turnaround in 2020, connecting almost 50 percent more turbines to the grid than in the year before, but lobby groups warn that new construction still fails to match climate targets and rising green power demand.
