Onshore wind tenders heavily oversubscribed in Germany as average bid price hits 7-year low

The latest German onshore wind power tender was again heavily oversubscribed, according to the country's Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). In the first auction in 2026, the grid regulator awarded 3.4 gigawatts (GW) of capacity to 439 winning bids out of a total of 924 bids with a volume of more than 7.8 GW.  

The average winning bid fell significantly compared to the previous round, from 6.06 cents to 5.54 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) – the lowest value since February 2018. Winning bids ranged from 5.19 cents per kWh to 5.64 cents per kWh. 

The largest volume of successful bids came from the states Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt, and Brandenburg, while the southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg accounted for only two percent of the total winning bid volume. The government has aimed to increase the share of wind turbines built in southern states, which trail their windier northern counterparts significantly in terms of installed capacity. 

Wind power is Germany's most significant renewable energy source and is regarded as the backbone of the country's future energy system. The country approved a record 20.8 GW of onshore wind permissions in 2025, while installed turbine capacity rose by 5.2 GW.

The German government's 2026 Climate Action Programme proposes the tendering of an additional 12 GW of onshore wind capacity by 2030 – described by environment minister Carsten Schneider as "the most important measure in the short term" to reach the country’s emissions reduction targets.