Significant oversubscription in the auctions for biomass plants and for solar installations on buildings of 1 October 2024
Year of issue 2024
Date of issue 2024.12.06
The Bundesnetzagentur has today published the results of the auctions for biomass plants and for solar installations on buildings and noise barriers. Both auctions closed on 1 October 2024 and, once again, were significantly oversubscribed.
"The record total volume of bids once again for roof-mounted solar installations is a positive sign for the future growth of this technology. It is especially encouraging because it shows progress towards matching the growth of ground-mounted installations,"
said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. "The auction for biomass plants showed that competition remains strong despite a slight decline in the volume of bids and the number of bidders."
Auction for biomass plants significantly oversubscribed for the fourth consecutive time
The auction was for a volume of 234 megawatts (MW), with 712 bids submitted for a total of 622 MW. There were 17 bids totalling 31 MW for new installations and 695 bids with a total volume of 591 MW for existing installations.
Some 283 bids were awarded: ten awards covering 14 MW went to new installations and 273 awards covering 220 MW to existing plants. The prices of the successful bids ranged from 12.92 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) to 17.93 ct/kWh. The average volume-weighted award price in this round is 17.33 ct/kWh, down from 17.80 ct/kWh in the previous round. Over the last four bidding rounds, the average award prices have fallen by over 1.5 ct/kWh.
From a regional perspective, more than half of the successful bids went to sites in Bavaria (67 MW, 92 winning bids) and in the state of Lower Saxony (56 MW, 63 winning bids), followed by Baden-Württemberg (21 MW, 26 winning bids), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (21 MW, 14 winning bids) and North Rhine-Westphalia (18 MW, 26 winning bids).
The statutory regulation for priority awards to installations in the south of Germany (taking the river Main as the dividing line) was suspended as of the start of the current bidding round. The share awarded to bids for the southern region accounted for 37% of the volume of successful bids in this round, which was significantly less than the previous round’s share of 50%.
The mark-up of 0.5 ct/kWh for small installations with an installed capacity of up to and including 500 kilowatts will also no longer be included in the bid award price as from this bidding round. Following an amendment to the underlying rule, the network operator will now take this surcharge into account when determining the value to be applied once the bid has been awarded.
Some 51 bids had to be excluded from the tendering procedure.
Highest total volume ever bid for in a roof-mounted solar installation auction
Competition was high as in the previous round with the auction being 1.7 times oversubscribed. The auction was for a volume of 258 MW with 209 bids submitted for a total of 434 MW, the largest volume of bids ever submitted in a bidding round for second-segment solar installations (installations on buildings and noise barriers). In the previous round bids were submitted for only 363 MW. The Bundesnetzagentur accepted 119 submitted bids comprising a total volume of 259 MW.
The prices of the successful bids in the pay-as-bid auction ranged from 7.45 ct/kWh to 9.69 ct/kWh. The average volume-weighted award price was 9.04 ct/kWh, which was similar to that of the previous round (8.94 ct/kWh).
The federal states with the largest volumes awarded were North Rhine-Westphalia (21 awards with a combined volume of 58 MW) and Bavaria (21 awards and 48 MW) and, with significantly lower volumes, Baden-Württemberg (9 awards and 24 MW) and Hesse (9 awards and 21 MW).
Some 17 bids had to be excluded from the tendering procedure.
Next steps
Further information about the rounds is available (in German) at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/bioausschreibungen24-2 and www.bundesnetzagentur.de/solaraufdach24-3.
Updated statistics will be published in due course.
The next auction for biomass plants will close for bids on 1 April 2025, the next auction for solar installations on buildings on 1 February 2025.