Germany has awarded only 208MW of new onshore wind capacity in the country's latest auction, with 650MW having been made available. The average price was €62.0 a megawatt-hour, the German grid regulator BNetz said. It did not give a reason for the lack of interest in the auction, but in previous undersubscribed sales BNetz had blamed problems in securing construction permits from state governments. Eight winning bids each came in the Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia regions, with five in Lower Saxony and four in Thuringia, the regulator added. One bid had to be excluded due to a form error, it said. Meanwhile, in the first three months of the year 3.23 billion kilowatt-hours of wind output was lost because of grid constraints, according to the Federal Energy and Water Association BDEW. BDEW said expansion of electricity grids should be a priority, but, as long as more renewable energy is produced than the grids can absorb, politicians should consider other measures for the excess energy. For example, supplying the electricity to private charging stations or developing power-to-gas technolgies. German wind energy association (BWE) president Hermann Albers also called for more to be done to stimulate increased power-to-gas development.
BNetz's most recent onshore wind tender awarded 208 MW out of 650 MW at an average price of €62 ($69)/MWh, according to the country's grid regulator, Germany. Although it gave no reasons for the lack of demand, Germany had previously cited difficulties in securing state government construction permits. Recent figures from the national energy and water industries body revealed 3.23 billion kWh of wind output was lost in Q1 2019 because of grid constraints.