The average successful bid was €46.60/MWh, over ten times higher than the average winning bid at the previous offshore auction in 2017 of €4.40/MWh.
The highest successful bid at the 2018 auction was €98.30/MWh.
There were fewer bids lodged at this latest auction for 1.61GW of offshore capacity because only existing permitted or far-advanced projects that were unsuccessful in the 2017 auction were allowed to participate.
Furthermore, the 2018 auction rules prioritised bids for at least 500MW of Baltic Sea projects.
Three of the successful bids were for Baltic Sea projects:
- Iberdrola's Baltic Eagle (476MW) site in the Baltic Sea Cluster 2 €64.60/MWh. It was acquired by Iberdrola from Sea Wind Holding in Q1 2017 .
- Iberdrola will also install Wikinger Sud (10MW) for €0/MWh — it will be located next to its 350MW Wikinger project, completed late last year.
- KNK Wind — also known as Arcadis Ost 1 — in Baltic Sea Cluster 4.
Three successful North Sea projects were:
- Ørsted's Gode Wind 4 (131.75MW) in North Sea Cluster 3 at a price of €98.30/MWh — the highest successful bid in the auction.
- Ørsted's Borkum Riffgrund West 1 (420MW) in North Sea Cluster 1 at a price of €0/MWh.
- Innogy's Kaskasi (325MW) site in North Sea Cluster 4.
All the projects have a guaranteed grid connection — financed by electricity consumers — and a 25-year permit to operate, the auction organiser, the BNA, said.
The 2018 auction was the second "transition-phase" bidding for existing projects that were permitted or at an advanced planning stage before the 1 August 2016 deadline, for a total 3.1GW — 37% of which has been won by Ørsted.
Ørsted secured licences for its OWP West and Borkum Riffgrund West 2 site in the first offshore auction for zero subsidy. It also secured the Gode Wind 3 project at €60/MWh.
The next auction due in 2021 for projects to be built from 2026 follows the new so-called "centralised model" rules in which the German state develops the projects and then invites offshore and other players to bid to implement them.
