The German Federal network regulator (Bundesnetzagentur or BNetzA) published the results of the October 2017 solar PV auction round. In total, the BNetzA received 110 bids with a total volume of 754 MW and the average bid size was 6.9 MW. Only 20 bids won the round and a total capacity of 222 MW has been awarded. The maximum bidding price during this tender was previously set at €8.84c/kWh. The average bidding rate dropped further by €75c/kWh compared with the previous round and reached €4.91c/kWh (€49.1/MWh). The highest bid achieved €5.06c/kWh and the lowest one €4.29c/kWh. Three out of the 20 successful bids obtained a volume higher than 20 MW.
The last tenders took place in January 2017 and June 2017 while the awarded capacities amounted respectively 200 MW and 201 MW. The German solar market is becoming increasingly competitive and showed strong cost reduction. In June 2017, bidding rates dropped to an average of €5.66c/kWh (from €6.58c/kWh in January 2017), while the highest aggregate value of the tender reached only €5.9c/kWh (€6.00c/kWh in January).
Since the beginning of 2017, solar and wind power projects bigger than 750 kW have to compete in tenders in order to secure power purchase deals, as feed-in tariff (FiT) contracts are no longer available.