Yet again, no onshore wind bids in fourth joint renewables auction, solar wins
Clean Energy Wire
Solar power projects again secured the entire volume of capacity available in the fourth joint auction for new solar and onshore wind, as no onshore bids were submitted, the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) said in a press release. Successful bids in the “significantly oversubscribed” auction ranged from 4.88 to 5.74 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh), said the BNetzA. At 5.4 ct/kWh, the average successful bid was above the last exclusively solar auction (4.9 ct/kWh), which “shows that the volumes tendered leave room for bids with different cost structures,” wrote the agency.
The outcome mirrors that of the last joint auctions in April 2019 and November 2018, after which the solar power lobby group BSW Solar and the wind power lobby group BWE had called on the government to end the “artificial competition” between the two technologies. “The energy transition needs solar and wind power alike” and these should complement each other to provide the greatest benefit for the energy system, the renewable power groups said. Until now, no wind power bid has been successful in all four bi-annual joint auctions.
