Return of undersubscribed wind power auctions a setback for Germany's expansion push
Clean Energy Wire
The May tender for building new onshore wind capacity in Germany has attracted fewer bidders than expected, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has said. After two rounds of oversubscribed auctions, the tendered volume of 1,320 megawatts (MW) was not met by the sum of all bids amounting to 947 MW, of which 114 valid ones with a volume of 931 MW were successful. On average, wind park operators will receive 5.85 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated, up from 5.76 ct/kwh in the previous round. The largest volumes will be built in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein (224 MW), followed by North Rhine-Westphalia (198 MW) and Lower Saxony (178 MW). The network agency did not specify reasons why the tender was undersubscribed.
Following the wind power expansion boom after 2013, additions to Germany’s onshore wind capacity dwindled after 2017 and only slowly picked up again in the 2020s, with the past two auctions being oversubscribed. The federal government has made plans to considerably increase tender volumes as of next year to meet climate targets and drive forward Germany’s independence from (imported) fossil fuels. By 2035, all electricity generated in Germany is to come from renewable sources, mainly from wind and solar PV.
