Number of bids doubles in December solar auction
Year of issue 2026
Date of issue 2026.02.13
The Bundesnetzagentur has today announced the results of the auction that closed for bids on 1 December 2025 for ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) installations and solar installations on a construction that is neither a building nor a noise barrier.
“Following two auctions with a decrease in the number of bids, more than twice as many bids were submitted this time than in the previous round. The high level of participation indicates the attractiveness of the framework conditions for the auctions
,” said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur.
Auction again oversubscribed
The auction round that ended on 1 December 2025 was significantly oversubscribed. The auction was for a volume of 2,328 megawatts (MW). There were 634 bids with a total volume of 5,247 MW, of which 262 with a combined volume of 2,341 MW were successful. A total of 61 bids were excluded from the proceedings.
The prices of the successful bids in the pay-as-bid auction ranged from 4.40 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) to 5.30 ct/kWh. The average volume-weighted award price in this round was 5.00 ct/kWh, slightly above that of the previous round (4.84 ct/kWh).
The federal state with by far the most volume awarded was, as in previous rounds, Bavaria (901 MW, 112 winning bids), followed by Saxony-Anhalt (282 MW, 24 winning bids) and Brandenburg (216 MW, 16 winning bids).
Most successful bids went to projects that are planned alongside motorways and railway lines (125 winning bids for a total of 1,150 MW). The category with the second largest volume of winning bids was farmland or grassland in “disadvantaged” areas (88 bids and 874 MW). These areas cannot be readily used for agricultural purposes and are therefore particularly suitable for PV installations. The third largest volume, making up nearly 9% of the volume of the bids submitted, was awarded for “special solar installations” (30 bids and 204 MW). These projects involve the use of land for both electricity generation and another purpose such as agriculture.
Further information
More information about the auction is available on the Bundesnetzagentur’s website (in German) at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/1077148.
The next auction for first-segment solar installations will close for bids on 1 March 2026.