Lack of projects hampers Germany's wind power ambitions

At the beginning of November, Germany held this year's fourth and final auction round for onshore wind farms. Although the volume of projects submitted was higher than in the previous round, the auction was still undersubscribed. Overall, Germany awarded roughly half of the 13 GW of capacity originally planned for this year.

Germany is once again struggling to fill auctions supporting the construction of onshore wind farms. Although a 25% increase in the maximum bid prices helped revive auctions this year, projects are still in short supply for onshore wind farms.

In November, this year's fourth standalone auction supporting the construction of wind farms was held. In the final round, the German regulator offered 2086 MW of capacity for tender, and 167 projects with a total capacity of 1981 MW were subsequently submitted. The regulator had to exclude two projects from the auction, so the remaining 165 projects, with a capacity of 1967 MW, secured support.

As for the awarded prices, the November round brought no surprises. According to the regulator, awarded prices ranged from 58,8 to 73,5 EUR/MWh, the cap for this year. Most projects secured a price close to the maximum, with the weighted average awarded price reaching 73,1 EUR/MWh.

Strong ambitions continue to run up against a shortage of projects

Germany has been grappling with a shortage of wind farm projects for a long time. In an effort to restart wind power auctions, Germany significantly increased the planned auction volumes for this year. Across four rounds, nearly 13 GW of capacity was originally due to be auctioned.

In the first auction this year, however, only half of the 3,2 GW of capacity on offer was awarded, leading to a reduction in the volume of subsequent auctions. Since the situation did not change significantly in the second round either, the volume for the third round was cut to just half of the originally planned 3,2 GW. This year, 6377 MW of capacity was awarded in German auctions for onshore wind farms. That is nearly double last year's 3225 MW, but still only half of the original target.