Average prices rose at Germany’s latest solar power tendering round, despite the auction being oversubscribed once more.
A total of 346 bids with a combined capacity of 1.34GW had been handed in, while Germany’s grid agency BNetzA only auctioned off 501MW.
Usually, prices fall in oversubscribed auctions, but instead the average price for a successful bid rose to €56.80 ($63.33) per megawatt hour of electricity to be produced, up from €49.00/MWh in a previous auction in 2019.
The wind industry federation BSW said it was regrettable that only one in three bidders were successful.
“We can’t afford this given the rapid climate change,” BSW managing director Carsten Körnig said.
“In order to meet climate targets and avoid power shortages the velocity of PV expansion must be tripled compared to 2019.”
Körnig also appealed to the government in Berlin to abolish a 52GW cap until which any support is paid to new solar projects, as the government had suggested last year.
The BNetzA had excluded bids with a combined capacity of 235MW due to formal mistakes.
