Germany closed the submission period on 1 July for its 2.13 GW photovoltaic auction under the "Solaranlagen des ersten Segments – Gebotstermin 1. Juli 2026" tender, marking the latest round in the country's annual auction programme to support new solar projects.

The tender closed on 1 July 2026, with bidders required to submit their proposals to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) before the deadline. The auction offered a total procurement volume of 2,134,567kW and set a maximum bid price of 5.90 euro cents/kWh.

According to the Federal Network Agency, the 2026 auction schedule allocates a total of 9.9GW of solar capacity across three tender rounds during the calendar year, with the auction volumes adjusted in line with the provisions of Germany's Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG).

The agency also noted that several provisions included in the Solar Package I remain subject to European Commission state aid approval. Until that approval is granted, the rules in force on 15 May 2024 will continue to apply.

These pending provisions include an increase in the maximum bid size from 20MW to 50MW, a higher maximum value for certain special solar installations, including elevated agrivoltaic and peatland PV projects, and a special award procedure that would prioritise specific categories of solar installations. If state aid approval was not granted before the bidding deadline, the previous rules remained applicable for this auction round.

The tender is open to ground-mounted solar projects, including installations on agricultural land, while bids for arable land and grassland in disadvantaged areas are eligible in all German federal states. As of 31 March 2026, the installed capacity of ground-mounted solar projects on agrivoltaic land commissioned since 1 January 2023 stood at 17.7GW, well below the 80GW threshold that would prevent new bids from being submitted for such sites, according to the Federal Network Agency.

The Federal Network Agency also reminded participants that all bids had to comply with the binding format requirements published for the auction, with non-compliant submissions excluded from the award procedure.

Following the close of the bidding period on 1 July, the Bundesnetzagentur will begin the administrative and technical review of the submitted bids to verify compliance with the requirements set out under German legislation. The bids will then be evaluated and ranked according to their bid prices until the full 2.13 GW auction volume has been allocated. Once the assessment is complete, the regulator will publish the official results, including the number of bids received, the awarded capacity, the minimum, maximum and average award prices, as well as the list of successful projects. Although the Bundesnetzagentur has not announced a publication date, based on the timeline of previous auction rounds, the results are expected to be released between late August and early September 2026.