(Wiesbaden, 5 February 2024) ABO Wind has secured tariffs for four solar parks with a total capacity of almost fifty megawatts (MW) in the Federal Network Agency’s most recent tender. "This is a remarkable success, earned by our dedicated team," says Dr Thomas Treiling, ABO Wind's Division Manager of Wind and Solar Project Development Germany. "Our solar departments make a significant contribution to the company's success by now."
All four solar parks – Habscheid (25 MW, Rhineland-Palatinate), Rehau (8.3 MW, Bavaria), Allna (8.8 MW, Hesse) and Hörzhausen (6.5 MW, Bavaria) – are to be connected to the grid this year and sold turnkey to the future operators. The commissioning of Habscheid, which will be the largest solar park built by ABO Wind in Germany to date, is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024. The secured subsidisation under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) provides the projects with long-term economic security and thus reduces financing costs. ABO Wind is also talking to large electricity consumers or suppliers about private electricity supply contracts. These so-called Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) can sometimes achieve higher payments for solar energy than with the state-backed EEG tariff. At the same time, the solar projects help to reduce electricity costs for industrial companies, for example. In doing so, they strengthen the business location.
The solar tender was oversubscribed more than three times. With a tendered volume of 1,611 megawatts (MW), 574 bids with a volume of 5,485 MW were submitted. Both the bid volume and the number of bids are setting new records for the Federal Network Agency’s solar tenders. Of the 574 bids, the agency was only able to award 124. Due to an exemption that has now expired, projects with a size of up to 100 MW were able to take part in the tender for the last time. This was one reason for the strong oversubscription and pricing. The award values are between 4.44 and 5.47 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) and thus significantly below those of the previous tender round (5.39 to 6.65 cents/kWh) as well as below the set maximum value of 7.37 cents/kWh.
In addition to the fierce competition, the falling prices for solar modules in recent months contributed to the decline in award values. Due to overcapacity, particularly among Chinese manufacturers, module prices are currently even lower than before the start of the war in Ukraine. This had also caused sharp price increases in this sector in the meantime.
Dr Treiling sees two convictions strengthened by the results of the tender: "Firstly, low-cost generation from ground-mounted photovoltaics is increasingly helping to reduce energy costs also in Germany. Secondly, the projects developed by our experienced regional teams across Germany are competitive even under the historically most demanding tender conditions."
