Prices fell in Germany’s October rooftop solar auction but remain high

The third and final round of German auctions this year for photovoltaic power plants on rooftops and noise barriers attracted strong interest. Awarded prices therefore fell again compared with the previous round. After the price caps for the auctions were raised, however, prices are still high compared with last year.

Another round of auctions to support the construction of photovoltaic power plants on building rooftops and noise barriers took place in Germany in October. As in the previous round, the German network regulator Bundesnetzagentur again offered 191 MW of installed capacity for bidding.

While interest in the auctions was weak last year, the situation has reversed this year. Although the first round was undersubscribed, in the second round all the offered capacity was awarded, for the first time since December 2021. Developer interest was even stronger in the third round, with 184 bids with a total installed capacity of 373 MW submitted to the auction, according to the regulator. The largest project submitted had an installed capacity of 17 MW.

"This round was more than twice oversubscribed, and strong competition drove down awarded prices. The regional distribution of projects is also encouraging: at least one project was successful in every federal state," said Klaus Müller, president of the federal regulator.

A total of 88 projects with a combined capacity of 191 MW were ultimately successful in the auction. According to the regulator, awarded prices ranged from 88 to 99.8 EUR/MWh. The weighted average awarded price in the third round this year was 95.8 EUR/MWh, or 6 EUR/MWh less than in the previous round.

Even strong competition was not enough to push prices down to last year’s levels, when they remained below 90 EUR/MWh despite a shortage of projects. Last year, however, the price cap for these auctions was 89.1 EUR/MWh; for this year, it was raised by 25 %, as were the caps for a number of other auctions.