Germany closed its second innovation auction of 2026 on 1 September, offering a total volume of 475 MW, while several provisions introduced under Solar Package I remain pending State aid approval from the European Commission.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) set 1 September as the deadline for submitting bids, which could be delivered to its headquarters in Bonn until midnight. The maximum bidding price for the auction was €0.0713/kWh.

Solar Package I, approved by Germany in 2024 to accelerate the deployment of photovoltaic capacity, introduced a series of changes to the rules governing solar auctions. However, some of these provisions require European Commission approval under EU State aid rules before they can be implemented.

Among the measures still awaiting approval is an increase from 20 MW to 50 MW in the maximum size of the solar component of bids submitted in innovation auctions.

For the 1 September auction, the Bundesnetzagentur stipulated that European approval had to be granted no later than 31 August for the new 50 MW limit to apply. Otherwise, the maximum bid size for the solar component would remain at 20 MW, in accordance with the rules applicable as of 15 May 2024.

The official auction page continues to state that European Commission State aid approval is still pending for some of the amendments introduced by Solar Package I. The affected provisions can only be applied once approval has been granted and in accordance with any conditions established by the Commission.

The September round is Germany’s second innovation auction this year. In the previous round, held on 1 May, the Bundesnetzagentur received 46 bids totalling 749 MW. It ultimately awarded 27 bids representing 482 MW, all of them combinations of solar installations and energy storage systems.

Another deadline at the end of September

The issue will remain relevant throughout September. Germany is preparing another solar auction for 1 October, this time covering second-segment installations, primarily photovoltaic systems installed on buildings and noise barriers.

For this auction, the Bundesnetzagentur also states that several provisions introduced by Solar Package I remain pending European State aid approval. In this case, 30 September is the relevant deadline for Commission approval to allow the affected provisions to be applied to the October round.

These include changes concerning auction volumes and the minimum bid size. If approval is not granted in time, the Bundesnetzagentur will continue applying the previous conditions to the 1 October auction.