Results of the April auctions for biomass and biomethane plants
Year of issue 2026
Date of issue 2026.06.09
The Bundesnetzagentur has today published the results of the auctions for biomass and biomethane plants that closed for bids on 1 April 2026.
“The bid volume submitted in the biomass auction was less than the volume up for auction, but bid values nonetheless remained stable
,” said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. “For the first time since 2022 we were able to accept bids on biomethane projects again.
”
Auction for biomass plants
The auction was for a volume of 727 megawatts (MW). A total of 494 bids with a volume of 637 MW were submitted. The auction was thus undersubscribed and resulted in 388 bids with a total volume of 491 MW being awarded. Some 29 bids had to be excluded from the award procedure.
Due to the undersubscription, the Bundesnetzagentur reduced the tender volume in accordance with statutory requirements. This means that awards were limited to 80% of the volume of the admitted bids.
The prices of the successful bids in the pay-as-bid auction ranged from 12.05 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) to 19.38 ct/kWh. The volume-weighted average price of the successful bids was 18.46 ct/kWh.
The federal state with the most volume awarded was Bavaria (123 MW, 111 winning bids), followed by Lower Saxony (105 MW, 84 winning bids), North Rhine-Westphalia (55 MW, 43 winning bids) and Schleswig-Holstein (47 MW, 31 winning bids).
Biomethane installation auction
Bids for biomethane installations were accepted for the first time since the auction in October 2022. The auction was for a volume of 61 MW. A total of six bids with a volume of 38 MW were submitted. All bids were successful. The Bundesnetzagentur did not exclude any bids from the procedure.
This was the first biomethane auction subject to the new scheme under the biomass package. The European Commission had approved the scheme under State aid rules in September 2025. Among other things, the biomass package improves the general conditions for biomethane installations. In addition, for biomethane auctions in 2026 the Bundesnetzagentur increased the maximum price by 10% to 23.13 ct/kWh.
The prices of the successful bids in the pay-as-bid auction ranged from 22.99 ct/kWh to 23.12 ct/kWh. The average volume-weighted award price was 23.08 ct/kWh and thus just below the maximum price.
The federal state with the most volume awarded was Saxony (20 MW, 2 winning bids), followed by Lower Saxony (7 MW, 2 winning bids), North Rhine-Westphalia (6 MW, 1 winning bid) and Schleswig-Holstein (5 MW, 1 winning bid).
Further information
Further information about the auctions is available on the Bundesnetzagentur’s website (in German) at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/1095498 and www.bundesnetzagentur.de/1095566.
The next auction for biomass plants will close for bids on 1 October 2026. The next auction for biomethane installations will end on 1 September 2026.