Germany Awards 288 MW of Rooftop Solar as Tender Bids Climb to 347 MW

• Bundesnetzagentur awarded 143 bids for 288 MW in its Oct. 1 tender for solar on buildings and noise barriers.
• Bids reached 347 MW against 296 MW on offer; the average award was 9.67 euro cents per kWh, against 9.72 in June.
• A 2.3-GW volume for 2026 still awaits EU state-aid approval; the next regular bidding date is normally Feb. 1.

Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) awarded 143 bids for 288 MW in its latest tender for solar on buildings and noise barriers. Bids were due Oct. 1, and the regulator published the results on Nov. 3.

Bids totalled 347 MW for 296 MW on offer, up from 238 MW in June. The agency excluded 34 bids for 58 MW, and every one of the remaining bids won. Winning prices in the pay-as-bid auction ranged from 8.50 to 10.00 euro cents per kWh. The volume-weighted average was 9.67 cents ($0.108), against 9.72 cents in June, the agency said.

The segment is for larger rooftop solar projects: the minimum bid this round was 1,001 kW. North Rhine-Westphalia won the most, 66 MW from 38 awards, ahead of Hesse at 30 MW and Brandenburg at 28 MW.

The October round in numbers

• 1.17 times oversubscribed, with 347 MW of bids for 296.269 MW on offer (list.solar calculation).
• 288.247 MW awarded to 143 bids, leaving about 8 MW of the volume unallocated (list.solar calculation).
• 10.00 euro cents per kWh was both the ceiling and the highest winning bid; the lowest was 8.50 cents.
• 0.5% drop in the average award price from June (list.solar calculation).
• 38% more capacity awarded than the 208.572 MW won in June by 108 bids (list.solar calculation).
• 59% of the awarded capacity went to five federal states, with North Rhine-Westphalia alone taking 23% (list.solar calculation).
• 215 GW of solar by 2030 is the target in Section 4 of Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act, with 128 GW set for 2026.

"There has been a clear increase in the volume of bids submitted for roof-mounted solar installations compared with the previous round. The auction volume was more or less covered," Bundesnetzagentur President Klaus Müller said.

Germany's 2024 Solar Package I raised the 2026 volume for this segment to 2,300 MW and cut the minimum bid to 751 kW. The European Commission has still not cleared those changes under state-aid rules. So the round stayed at 296.269 MW, as the agency said when it opened the tender in August. A parallel biomass auction was undersubscribed, with 319 MW awarded.

The awards are deemed notified on Nov. 10, and bidders have one month to appeal to the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf. The next regular bidding date would normally be Feb. 1, 2027.