Germany has revised down the price ceiling for roof-mounted solar PV systems to €0.1/kWh (US$0.117/kWh) for tenders to be held in 2026.
This is a slight decrease from the price cap set for rooftop auctions in 2025 at €0.104/kWh, but still remains higher than the average registered in the rooftop tenders held this year. The auction held in the first quarter of the year registered an average price of €0.091/kWh and awarded 315MW, while the tender held in July averaged a winning bid price of €0.0922/kWh and a volume of 255MW.
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The price ceiling for next year is slightly lower than that for 2025 as it took into account the decrease in the forecast levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) and the results of the latest auction rounds, according to the Bundesnetzagentur (German Federal Network Agency), which is in charge of the country’s tenders.
“The new price ceilings create a framework enabling a large number of bidders to take part in the auctions. The ceilings are lower than in 2025. This is due to the decrease in the forecast levelised costs of electricity and due to the high level of competition in the latest auctions,” said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur.
Price ceilings for ground-mounted solar PV tenders and ‘innovation tenders,’ which are co-located renewables projects, on the other hand, have not seen any changes at the moment and will currently remain as they were set under the Renewables Energies Act.
The Bundesnetzagentur noted that the price ceilings for each of the auctions for ground-mounted solar PV systems will be based on the previous three auction rounds. At the beginning of the year, results from the ground-mounted solar tender registered the lowest average prices since 2019, with €0.0476/kWh. All the ground-mounted PV tenders held in 2025 ended up oversubscribed, showing strong interest for these auctions, with an average price of €0.0466/kWh in April 2025 and €0.0484/kWh in August 2025.
Regarding the innovation tenders, the network agency said a €0.0713/kWh ceiling price will be applicable in 2026. This is quite higher than the average price recorded in the last two tenders held in 2025, with €0.0531/kWh in October and €0.0615/kWh in July.
All the projects awarded in the July innovation tender ended up being solar-plus-storage ones, while both innovation tenders held in 2025 received more than 2GW of bids despite the auction’s volume set at less than 500MW. The strong interest in the co-located auctions has also led to a considerable decrease in the average price results since last year. The innovation tender results in October 2024 had an average volume-weighted price of €0.0709/kWh, which is more on par with what the Bundesnetzagentur has set for 2026’s ceiling for these tenders.
