Interest in Germany's rooftop solar auction plunged this year

Germany held its first auction this year in early February to support the construction of solar installations on rooftops and noise barriers. While auctions for other types of renewable energy are attracting strong interest, the same cannot be said of auctions for rooftop solar. Developer interest fell by almost half compared with the previous round, meaning the auction was not fully subscribed, just as it was last July.

Germany plans to hold a total of three auctions this year to support the construction of solar power plants on building rooftops and noise barriers, the same number as last year. There are also no significant changes to the capacity on offer, with each auction once again offering around 300 MW.

The first round this year was held in February, with Germany's grid regulator offering a total of 282.7 MW of capacity. Interest in the auction was very weak, however: according to the regulator, 98 projects with a total capacity of just 177 MW were submitted. The regulator had to exclude a further 13 projects from the auction, so just 85 projects with a capacity of 155 MW ultimately secured support, using up only around half of the auction volume. The result was significantly worse than in last June's auction for the same volume, which was also not fully subscribed, with 255 MW awarded.

The February auction was positive, however, in terms of the prices awarded, which fell slightly compared with the previous round, after rising gradually over the preceding two years. In the first auction this year, developers secured minimum guaranteed prices for their projects ranging from 78.8 to 100 EUR/MWh, with a weighted average of 95.6 EUR/MWh, a slight decrease from the average of 96.6 EUR/MWh in the previous round.