In late January, the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) formally initiated a tender for about 1.1GW of PV projects, 1.3GW of onshore wind projects, and 274.86MW of biomass projects. The bid submission deadline for PV and biomass projects is March 1, whereas the deadline for wind projects is February 1. This story was first reported by other websites that cover news on renewable energy.

The tender for PV projects requires bidders to submit proposals for ground-mounted PV power plants sized between 750kW and 20MW. They will be located on arable land, grassland, and “less favorable” land across the following states: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Saxony. Through the tender, these state will individually obtain an additional 35MW to almost 230MW of PV generation capacity. The ceiling for the bid price is set at EUR 0.0557 (USD 0.062) per kWh. Winning bids will result in contracts that offer the exact prices that have been submitted (i.e., “pay-as-bid” model).

The German government will be tendering 3.6GW of ground-mounted PV generation capacity this year in three tranches that are each 1.2GW. The first tranche that was launched in late January is less than 1.2GW because almost 100MW of ground-mounted PV generation capacity that is outside of the tender scheme is already expected to be installed during this year. All in all, the German government aims to auction off 6GW of PV generation capacity in 2022. This figure includes all types of PV systems and projects. Originally, the target for 2022 was set at 2GW. However, it has been raised significantly in accordance with the amendments to the Federal Climate Change Act and the implementation of the 2022 Immediate Action Program for Climate Protection.