Germany's wind auction sees record participation, but prices are not falling

Germany continues to develop renewable energy, still relying on auctions as the primary instrument for supporting it. In August, the country's third onshore wind auction of the year took place. This year, Germany has managed to attract more projects to its auctions, with the latest round setting a record for the volume of projects submitted. Although the auction was fully subscribed for the first time in a long while, prices are not falling and remain close to the maximum permitted level.

This year, Germany has managed to bring more projects to its onshore wind auctions for the first time in a long while. While the first two rounds of the year were, as usual, not fully subscribed, the situation changed in the third round. According to data from the country's network regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, more than 200 projects with a total installed capacity of 2960 MW were submitted to the latest auction. According to the regulator's statistics, this is the highest capacity investors have ever submitted to a single auction.

"This auction was a record. The volume in this auction is higher than ever before. The nearly 3 GW offered is significantly more than the 2.5 GW needed to achieve the planned annual increase in capacity," said regulator president Klaus Müller.

The auction was also fully subscribed in large part because the German regulator significantly adjusted the auction volumes this year compared with the original plans. The regulator takes this step when it expects a significant shortfall in projects relative to the planned auction volumes. The regulator had initially planned to auction 4.1 GW of capacity in this round, but the final volume was 2.7 GW.

The August round for onshore wind power was therefore the first in Germany in 2.5 years to be fully subscribed. A total of 230 projects with an installed capacity of 2.72 GW secured operating support in the form of a guaranteed minimum price. As usual, the country's northern regions dominated this round, particularly North Rhine-Westphalia (756 MW), Brandenburg (385 MW) and Schleswig-Holstein (285 MW).

The awarded prices once again remained close to the maximum level set by the regulator in accordance with German legislation. The prices secured ranged from 57.3 to 73.5 EUR/MWh, while the weighted average, at 73.3 EUR/MWh, was unchanged from the previous round.