Germany's fifth solar auction allocates 130 MW to 25 projects

 Germany’s Federal Network Agency has allocated 130 MW to 25 successful bids in the fifth round of the country’s auction scheme for large-scale solar.

The average bid amount was €0.723 ($0.799) per kilowatt hour, down from €0.741 in the previous auction in April. Bid amounts are lower on average compared to the previous tender, the Federal Network Agency said Friday.

Federal Network Agency Jochen Homann said the price decline was evidence of the effective competition between ground-mounted PV systems.

For the August auction, the agency again employed its pay-as-bid system, which means the bid price offered is paid for electricity produced by the winning PV project. The highest winning bid was still below €0.08 per kWh, according to the agency, which did not disclose the lowest bid amount.

The fifth solar auction for 125 MW was again well oversubscribed, with 62 bids for a total of 311 MW tendered. Nine bids were disqualified due to errors. The winning bidders now have until Aug. 24 to pay a their secondary security deposit for their projects. The agency will thereafter publish the final results.