Onshore wind power auction in Germany once again fails to attract enough bidders

The lack of interest in Germany's onshore wind power auctions continued in the latest auction in September, which once again failed to attract enough bidders to meet the auctioned volume, Germany's federal network agency (BNetzA) said. Of the 500 megawatt (MW) auctioned, only 187 MW could be awarded to a total of 21 bidders. "This is clearly not enough to speak of competition," the BNetzA said. The average support awarded to bidders stood at the "record-high" level of 6.2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), the agency said. The largest share of the auctioned volume, about 64 MW, went to Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.

The expansion of onshore wind power, which is supposed to become Germany's chief source of electricity in the future, has stalled significantly, reaching the lowest level in 20 years in the first half of 2019. A flawed auction design and difficulties in obtaining licenses for turbine construction have discouraged investors and led to sinking participation volumes in onshore tenders. Energy minister Peter Altmaier called a national wind power summit in early September, where he and his state colleagues promised a set of legal reforms to ensure wind power expansion reaches the level needed to meet the country's renewable power expansion goals.