Germany’s federal grid regulator BNetzA received no bids for onshore wind in the country’s latest joint auction combined with solar capacity.
Just over 203MW was awarded to 30 photovoltaic projects out of a total of 113 solar bids with a combined capacity of more than 553MW.
BNetzA said the projects are spread across 10 federal states, with 10 developments topping 75MW located in Bavaria, four totalling 40MW in Saarland, over 35MW at two facilities in Brandenburg and four plants reaching almost 24MW in Saxony-Anhalt.
Bid prices ranged from €49.7 a megawatt-hour to €56.1/MWh, with the average price €53.3/MWh.
The regulator said this means the average price is above the average value – €51.8/MWh – for the last technology-specific solar tender in March.
Twelve bids, totalling more than 24MW, were disqualified because of errors, BNetzA added.
The next technology-specific onshore wind and solar tenders will be held on 1 June.
Kerstin Andreae, chair of the German energy and water industry business group BDEW, said: “The results of the joint tender show a sunny and a dark side. The advertised additional volume was once again exceeded simply by the bids for solar systems.
“This makes it clear: in the middle of the corona crisis, there is an industry that wants to invest.
“It is extremely worrying that wind energy is once again on the dark side. Not a single wind power project was in the auction.
“In order to achieve the expansion target for renewable energies of 65% in electricity generation by 2030, the expansion of onshore wind power must get going again.
“The federal states are now on the move to support this expansion, ie, not to issue regulations that restrict the potential wind expansion areas by means of rigid distance regulations.”