Following its second auction for large-scale, ground-based photovoltaic projects that was oversubscribed three-fold, Germany has awarded solar projects for total capacity of 159.7 MW to successful bidders.
According to federal grid agency BNetzA, 33 bids with an average project size of 4.8 megawatts were successful at the tender. In all, the agency had received 136 bids with combined capacity of 558 megawatts.
BNetzA had floated the first such tender in April, and awarded solar projects for total capacity of 157 MW at average price close to $102 per megawatt hour.
While projects awarded under the first tender were on “pay-as-bid” basis, the second round switched to “uniform pricing” model.
Successful bids under the model received the highest awarded bid price in the auction. The maximum bid ceiling set under the tender was 111.8 euros per megawatt hour.
According to BNetzA, the bid price will be revealed in September after successful bidders complete the process of proving guarantees for project finance.
Germany has been promoting tenders for ground-based large-scale solar PV installation with a combined 1.2 GW for the 2015-17 period as part of its efforts to bring costs of solar installations further down and to integrate solar photovoltaic projects in a better manner into the electricity market.
Germany is biggest market in Europe for solar projects but the rate of installations has slowed sharply since the government started cutting feed-in-tariffs in 2012. And United Kingdom has surpassed Germany in annual solar installations.
The country’s solar photovoltaic additions dropped last year for a second year in a row. It came down by 42 percent to 1.9 gigawatts, its lowest annual level since 2007.
In the first half of this year the country has added only 0.6 gigawatts of solar power capacity.
Ajith Kumar S