Germany has launched a new tender which seeks to add 1.95GW of utility-scale solar PV capacity on arable land and grassland in disadvantaged areas.
The deadline for the bids has been set to 1 March 2023 and will have a maximum price bidding set at €0.0737/kWh (US$0.08/kWh), which was increased earlier this week.
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Bids for this tender will be applicable on arable land and grassland in disadvantaged areas, with each region allocating a maximum quota for it, ranging from a maximum of 500MW solar capacity in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg to Hesse’s 35MW.
With this latest solar auction, Germany will allocate a third of the total capacity (5.85GW) to be awarded throughout auctions this year.
Ahead of the new tender, the German Federal Network Agency increased the price cap for ground-mounted solar tenders in an attempt to attract more interest in the auction as the latest one for solar ended up being undersubscribed.
In a similar move, Germany also raised the price cap for rooftop solar tenders, with a similar expectation to increase the number of bids for its solar tenders it will hold in 2023.
The results for the December tender ended up awarding 609MW of solar capacity out of 677MW of applications sent, despite a 890MW tender offer for utility-scale solar, due to the price cap not being adjusted accordingly at the time.
Germany was not the only European country to end up having an undersubscribed solar tender last year, with Spain’s latest auction awarding no capacity to solar PV, while Poland and Italy awarded less capacity than previous tenders.
Moreover, Germany received approval from the European Commission for its near-US$30 billion renewable scheme that will run until the end of 2026 and which included the increase of tenders, number and volume-wise, for rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV.