Prices in German auctions combining renewables with storage continue to fall

At the beginning of May, the first of this year's two rounds of innovative auctions was held in Germany. Projects combining different renewable energy technologies or generation sources with short-term storage compete in these auctions. As in previous rounds, the auctions are dominated entirely by systems combining solar PV with storage. Interest in the auctions is relatively strong, with the volume of submitted projects once again reaching a new record. As in the previous round, the auctioned prices fell again.

Germany has been offering support to renewable energy developers for several years through so-called innovative auctions. Only projects combining different renewable energy technologies or generation sources with short-term storage can compete in these auctions. For projects equipped with storage, these components must account for at least 25% of the system's total installed capacity and must be capable of fully discharging within two hours.

According to the German network regulator, 158 projects with a total installed capacity of 2020 MW were submitted for the May round, in which developers could compete for 486 MW of capacity. However, the regulator had to exclude 56 bids, or more than a third, from the auction. In the end, 29 bids with a combined installed capacity of 488 MW were successful.

In this year's first round, awarded prices ranged from 50 to 63.9 EUR/MWh, with a weighted average of 61.5 EUR/MWh. By comparison, in the previous auction, developers secured an average minimum guaranteed price of 70.9 EUR/MWh for their projects.

As usual, the largest share of successful projects was in the federal state of Bavaria (137 MW). The federal states of Saxony-Anhalt (124 MW) and Lower Saxony (49 MW), in the northern part of the country, followed at a relatively small distance.