Germany opens 3.2 GW onshore wind, 400-MW innovation tender

March 28 (Renewables Now) - Germany has launched this year's second round of the onshore wind tender, targeting proposals for 3.192 GW of capacity and opened a call for 400 MW of innovative projects.

The deadline for both rounds is May 1, 2023, the Federal Network Agency said on Monday.

Projects eligible to compete in the onshore wind auction must have been granted permits under the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG) by April 3, 2023 and the offered price must not exceed EUR 0.0735 (USD 0.079) per kWh.

The price cap for the technology was raised at the end of 2022 from EUR 0.0588 per kWh as the Federal Network Agency sought to revive the flagging interest in the auction. As a result, as many as 126 proposals with a total capacity of 1,502 MW were submitted in the first round of the auction this year. Although this was far below the targeted capacity of 3.192 GW, the interest was stronger than in 2022.

According to wind energy association BWE, the long approval procedure is a major hurdle to allocating the planned capacity for onshore wind. In the first two months of the year, permits were granted for the installation of 122 turbines with a combined capacity of only 696.3 MW, based on the data from the Federal Network Agency.

The innovation tender is open to wind, solar, energy storage, biomass, geothermal energy and hydropower projects that combine two technologies to support the grid and integration of renewable energy and secure a more even supply of electricity from such power plants.

The power regulator raised the value cap for this technology by 25% to EUR 0.0918 per kWh in order to reflect the higher costs related to project development. The last round of the auction in December accepted only one bid for a solar-plus-storage project from Bavaria whose capacity was not disclosed.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.077)