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Price ceil­ings for re­new­able en­er­gy auc­tions

Year of issue 2023
Date of issue 2023.12.14

The Bundesnetzagentur has today announced the price ceilings for the auctions to be held in 2024 for onshore wind (7.35 cents per kilowatt hour), ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) systems (7.37 ct/kWh) and rooftop solar installations (10.50 ct/kWh).

"We are creating a reliable framework for the auctions. The price ceilings take account of the actual costs of renewables," said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. "We will be looking at setting price ceilings for biomass, biomethane and innovation auctions in the near future."

Accommodating the costs of renewables

The price ceilings for onshore wind and ground-mounted solar PV auctions are the same as the higher price ceilings also set for this year's auctions by the Bundesnetzagentur.

It has not been necessary to keep the price ceiling for next year's rooftop solar auctions at this year's higher level. Rather, a slightly lower price ceiling will be sufficient to enable adequate bids. This is because of a decrease in the projected costs of rooftop installations and the absence of any significant additional bids above 10.50 ct/kWh in the most recent bidding round.

Without the Bundesnetzagentur's new price ceilings, the ceilings would revert to the considerably lower limits set in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG): 5.88 ct/kWh for onshore wind, 5.90 ct/kWh for ground-mounted solar PV systems and 8.91 ct/kWh for rooftop solar installations. These, however, are not adequate.

Background

In setting new price ceilings, the Bundesnetzagentur is reacting to the increase in the costs for building and operating the installations since the price ceilings were last set in legislation, including the cost of interest for financing the installations. There has been such an increase in costs that economically viable operation of planned new installations would not be possible to the extent necessary for the energy transition with the price ceilings set in the legislation.

The new price ceilings will be published in the next issue of the Bundesnetzagentur's Official Gazette and are available online:

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