Germany unveils third and final wind power tender of 2017, 1GW available

German energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNA) is to tender 1GW of onshore wind capacity with a deadline for bids of 2 November.

It will be the third and final tender of wind capacity to be held in Germany this year.

Germany plans to ramp up its installed wind capacity by holding tenders for 2.8GW per year from 2017 to 2019, and 2.9GW each year afterwards, as part of the country’s move away from fossil fuels.

BNA said in a statement published Monday afternoon it will hope to see the fall in average prices that has occurred over the previous two tenders continue (click here to read story).

“The first two tenders were characterised by high competition,” said Jochen Homann, president of the BNA in a statement on Monday.

At the second event, which had a deadline of 1 August, the average tender price was €42.80/MWh. This was 25% lower than the average at the first tender, held in May.

The maximum bid price will be €70.00/MWh, as it was in the first two rounds. Capacity will be allocated to the lowest bids below this reference figure.

Under a contract-for-difference model, winning projects will sell their electricity at the market rate and receive a top-up subsidy.

In the last tender, the average revenue for winning bids was €42.80/MWh on average.

Citizen energy projects

Participation from German citizen energy projects – also known as community projects – was strong in the previous two tenders, making up 96% and 84% of successful bids in the first and second auction.

The participation of citizen projects has been encouraged in the tenders to prevent the dominance of large developers.

Citizen projects benefit from a simpler application process for their projects. For example, they do not need to provide an environmental permit in advance of their participation in the tender. However, the rules are expected to be tightened in 2018.

Regional variations

Available capacity for a network expansion area in northern Germany will be 430.55MW. This includes 108.55MW of capacity for this area that was made available at the previous tender but not taken up.

Most of the successful tenders in the previous round were for projects in eastern Germany.

Biomass

Also on Monday, Bundesnetzagentur said 24MW of biomass-fired power capacity had been accepted in a tender specifically for biomass plants. All bids will be successful due to the “low quantity”.

The actual available volume at the tender, Germany’s first for biomass, was 122MW. A further 9MW was not accepted by the regulator, generally due to not meeting the necessary criteria.

The 98MW of surplus available capacity will now be rolled into Germany’s second biomass auction, which will take place in September next year.

Homann said it “had been expected that only a few bids would be received”. jon.stibbs@icis.com