Developers' interest in subsidies for ground-mounted solar remains extremely strong in Germany

Germany has held its first auction round of the year, in which ground-mounted solar PV developers compete for operating support for their projects. As in previous auctions, this year’s first round was marked by very strong competition. The volume of projects submitted was twice the auction volume, but awarded prices remain largely unchanged.

Germany is planning several rounds of separate auctions this year to support the construction of ground-mounted solar power plants—three in total. The first took place in early March, with nearly 2.3 GW of installed capacity up for auction. As in previous rounds, investor interest was very strong, with projects totalling more than 4.6 GW submitted to the auction.

As usual, the regulator had to exclude some projects from the auction because they did not meet the necessary requirements. In the end, developers secured operating support for 268 projects with a combined capacity of 2.3 GW. Bavaria again topped the list (693 MW), followed by the federal states of Lower Saxony (340 MW) and Baden-Württemberg (333 MW).

Awarded prices ranged from 39.9 to 51 EUR/MWh, with a weighted average of 49.4 EUR/MWh. This is a slight decrease compared with the average of 50 EUR/MWh in the previous round, although the average price is still higher than in the earlier rounds last year.

As in the previous round, the largest share of successful projects was accounted for by solar installations planned alongside motorways or railway lines. According to the regulator, these comprised 123 projects with a total capacity of more than 1 GW. They were followed by installations on agricultural land or lower-quality meadows, with 73 projects totalling 760 MW.

The third-largest group was so-called special installations, where the land is also used for other purposes, such as agriculture. In this category, 59 projects with a capacity of 439 MW secured support.