After a strong previous round, Germany's renewables-plus-storage auction was undersubscribed

Germany is holding two auctions for renewable energy sources with storage this year, the first of which took place in May. As with other auctions, developers' lack of interest has been a problem in this segment in recent years. The final round last year offered hope, with relatively strong competition. This year, however, the situation changed again: the full volume on offer was not even taken up in the first round.

Since launching auctions for renewable energy sources, Germany has gradually expanded its portfolio, with so-called innovation auctions among its latest initiatives. Developers can submit only renewable energy projects combined with storage in these auctions. They can also compete with wind power projects, although solar parks have dominated from the outset.

The same was true of this year's first round, which offered 583 MW of capacity. According to Germany's network regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, 48 projects with a total capacity of 564 MW were submitted to the auction. All of them were solar parks with storage. The total capacity of the submitted projects was not enough to fill the auction, and the regulator subsequently disqualified five projects.

All 43 eligible projects, with a total installed capacity of 512 MW, were therefore awarded support. The cap for innovation auctions is currently set at 91.8 EUR/MWh, and the awarded guaranteed prices ranged from 67.8 to 91.7 EUR/MWh. The weighted average of the prices secured in the May round was 83.3 EUR/MWh, exactly the same figure as in the previous round.

As usual, the largest share of projects was in southern Germany, in Bavaria (245 MW), followed by the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (79 MW) and Schleswig-Holstein (73 MW).