German Solar Developers Push for Higher Auction Ceiling as Regulatory Costs Loom

Fifteen solar developers working in Germany have jointly urged regulators to raise the ground-mounted solar auction price cap to at least €70 per megawatt-hour beginning in 2027, warning that the current €59/MWh ceiling could leave some projects unprofitable once a set of planned rule changes takes effect.

The coalition — which includes RWE, Belectric, GP Joule, Juwi, BayWa r.e., and Enertrag, among others — grounds its demand in a Prognos study commissioned by the energy industry association BDEW. The research found that three overlapping regulatory shifts could push normalised solar generation costs up by as much as 30%, adding €13–15 per megawatt-hour beyond what the existing cap allows.

The developers point to three specific cost drivers:

• A transition to two-sided contracts for difference, which would cap developer revenue during periods of elevated wholesale prices;
• A rising number of hours when spot electricity prices turn negative;
• A Federal Network Agency proposal under the AgNes grid procedure to introduce, from 2029, a grid fee of €4–7 per kilowatt per year for new installations above 30 kW.

From 2028 onward, the group proposes replacing the fixed ceiling with a dynamic one: the arithmetic mean of the highest accepted bids across the three most recent auctions, plus an 8% buffer, with €70/MWh retained as the upper limit.

Source: PV Magazine