Germany has selected 124 solar projects with a combined capacity of 1,613 MW in the last tender round for 2023 which was nearly three and a half times oversubscribed and saw prices fall further.
The Federal Network Agency has received 574 bids for ground-mounted solar parks and solar plants on structural systems that are neither buildings nor noise barriers, totalling 5,485 MW, it said on Wednesday.
As many as 19 of the winning bids have an individual capacity exceeding 20 MW while the largest selected project was for a 74 MW solar park. Selected projects include also ten proposals for agrivoltaic plants.
“The last round of tenders also set a record: never before has there been such a large participation in a tender for ground-mounted solar systems,” commented the agency’s president Klaus Mueller.
The volume-weighted average price in the round was EUR 0.0517 (USD 0.056) per kWh which marks a significant drop from the previous two rounds when it came in at EUR 0.0703 and EUR 0.0647. Successful proposals in the tender with a December 1 deadline ranged from EUR 0.0444 to EUR 0.0547 per kWh.
Once again, Bavaria was a leader in terms of geographical location of successful bids with 63 awards of a combined 604 MW. Second came Brandenburg with 197 MW distributed among nine projects and third ranked Saxony-Anhalt with 11 successful bids totalling 167 MW.
Overall, Germany allocated more than 5.22 GW of capacity in this category in three rounds last year witnessing an increasing interest in the competition.
Currently, the first round for 2024 is open for proposal submission. The Federal Network Agency will accept bids by March 1, seeking to award 2.23 GW.