In May this year, Germany subscribed more than 1GW of wind capacity in a tender following a longer period of underwhelming interest. Now the country can breathe even easier.

The German Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur, received as many as 210 bids for a combined capacity of 2.824MW in a solicitation that ended on Sept. 1, 2021.

Of these offers, 166 bids for projects totaling 1.494GW were accepted, with prices between EUR 0.052 and 0.0592 per kWh. The volume-weighted average price ended at EUR 0.0579 per kWh.

A ceiling of 6 euro cents per kWh was set for the tender.

The largest region allocation went to Schleswig-Holstein; 401MW distributed among 43 bids, while Northern Rhine-Westphalia took home 315MW from 51 bids. Lower Saxony came in at third place with 265MW spread out among 19 bids.

Bundesnetzagentur informs that six proposals were excluded from the process because of formal deficiencies, but unlike in the prior round, the authority was not obliged to reduce the tendered volume beforehand.

Situation improving

In the first half of 2021, Germany's combined installed capacity increased with 971MW, setting the national total to 55.772MW of wind power.

Germany thus still has a way do go before reaching the 57GW Berlin targets for 2022 – and even further to the 71GW objective set for 2030.

Domestic onshore wind has been burdened since 2017 by a tender model that allowed new projects four and a half years to establish grid connection if projects were licensed within the period. The administrative process of issuing permits has, however, raised major problems. Meanwhile, interest groups have campaigned against many new developments, resulting in undersubscribed auctions.

Although in May this year, the volume of alloted projects surpassed 1GW for the first time since 2017.

"We have overcome the low point. The latest tender results show that the situation continues to improve," said Hermann Albers, chair of the German Wind Energy Association.

This year's project allocations from May, though, still totaled to less than the full solicited capacity, already lowered because Bundesnetzagentur anticipated undersubscription.

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