Germany’s federal grid regulator BNetzA has awarded contracts for 523MW of wind at the country’s latest support auction, which put 900MW of new capacity up for grabs
The undersubscribed auction round received 67 bids for 527MW in total and awarded 66 new projects.
Prices bid by developers ranged from €57.60/MWh to €62/MWh and averaged €61.80/MWh – a slight increase on the €61.1/MWh granted to the 509MW awarded at the country’s last auction in December, which was oversubscribed.
VDMA Power Systems said the result shows that shows that the uptick in interest late last year was unsustainable.
“The federal government and states are called upon to increase the number of new builds through rapid measures for faster legal security of permits, more available space and more acceptance,” VDMA managing director Matthias Zelinger said.
“Flat-rate distance rules are not a solution.”
Northern state Schleswig-Holstein was the biggest winner at the year’s first auction, with 14 projects totalling 103MW securing supports.
The western region of North Rhine-Westphalia was also well represented, bagging 97MW of new capacity.
Innogy and NEW RE secured 27MW in the region. The duo is set to install six 4.5MW Nordex turbines for their Jüchen project, which will start construction in Q2 this year.
“We are pleased about the good cooperation with the city of Jüchen and our regional cooperation partner NEW RE. This has resulted in us being able to implement an attractive project in the challenging German onshore market,” Innogy senior vice president of onshore wind and solar Katja Wünschel said.
Solar projects fared better at a seperate auction, with 98 projects totalling 498MW scrapping it out for 100MW of supports up for grabs, driving prices as low as €62/MW.
The country’s next auction for wind and solar will be held in March.