Germany's Second Rooftop Solar Tender Is Oversubscribed And Prices Rise

Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) has published the results of its second tender for rooftop solar, with the average price rising 8% to 0.0743 euros ($0.085) per kWh, with the maximum electricity price capped at 0.09 euros per kWh. Solar projects with an initial tender of 150MW were oversubscribed, attracting 209 bids, and projects with a capacity of more than 300kW had a total capacity of 233MW. In the end, 136 bids were selected and the 154MW project was awarded. Compared to Germany's first tender for rooftop solar, the bid rose to between €0.0570 and €0.0828 ($0.065 to $0.094) per kWh. The third rooftop solar tender is scheduled for April 1, 2022.

The German government has stimulated the development of rooftop photovoltaics through a series of measures. According to the policy of EEG2021, rooftop projects larger than 750kW must be allocated in the form of tenders, and projects of 300kW-750kW can be allocated in the form of tenders. The maximum electricity price is €90 /MWh; FiT/FiP is applicable to rooftop projects below 300kW (including 300kW); starting from the second quarter of 2021, 300-750kW projects outside the tender can obtain FiP of 50% of the power generation. Secondly, Baden-Württemberg, the third largest state in area and population in Germany, passed a bill on October 6, 2021, requiring that all new houses in the state be installed with solar energy installations on the roof from May 1, 2022 , from January 1, 2023, all existing buildings in the state will also be retrofitted with solar installations on the roof.

According to the breakdown of German photovoltaic installed capacity in 2020, the installed capacity of projects less than 10kW will reach 1.1GW, the installed capacity of industrial and commercial photovoltaic projects of 10kW-750kW will reach 2.9GW, and the installed capacity of projects above 750kW will reach 867MW. It can be seen that rooftop photovoltaics dominate the German photovoltaic market. The installed capacity of photovoltaics in Germany is increasing year by year. The newly installed capacity in 2021 will increase by 9% compared with that in 2020. It is expected that the installed capacity of rooftop photovoltaics will reach 4.2-4.6GW, and the total newly installed capacity in 2022 is expected to exceed 6GW.