2026 EEG Solar Tender: Federal Network Agency Publishes Terms and Conditions for the July 1 Bidding Deadline

June 18, 2026

Source: Federal Network Agency

The Federal Network Agency has published the tender conditions for solar power plants in the first segment for the bidding deadline on July 1, 2026.

In total, subsidy quotas for photovoltaic systems with a capacity of approximately 2.13 gigawatts are being put out to tender. The maximum bid price is 5.90 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The tender is part of the expansion path for photovoltaics set forth in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). For the year 2026, the EEG stipulates a total volume of 9.9 gigawatts, to be distributed across three tender rounds.

Solar Package I Not Yet Fully Applicable

Several changes adopted as part of Solar Package I cannot yet be implemented for this bidding round. This is due to the fact that state aid approval from the European Commission is still pending.

This particularly affects the planned increase in the maximum bid size from 20 to 50 megawatts, new upper limits for certain specialized solar installations, and the proposed award procedure with dedicated quotas for agri-PV and peatland-PV installations.

If the European Commission does not grant the required approval by June 30, 2026, at the latest, the previous regulations in the version dated May 15, 2024, will continue to apply.

Bids Accepted Until July 1, 2026

Bids must be received by the Federal Network Agency in Bonn no later than July 1, 2026. The agency notes that only the forms published for the current bidding deadline may be used. A security deposit must also be provided for each bid.

The maximum value of 5.90 cents per kilowatt-hour is calculated as the average of the highest successful bids from the past three bidding rounds, plus a statutory surcharge. Bids exceeding this value will be excluded from the process.

Open-space installations on agricultural land still permitted

Bids for ground-mounted installations on agricultural land may also be submitted in this tender round. The applicable upper limit of 80 gigawatts of installed capacity is currently well below the current level. As of the cutoff date of March 31, 2026, such plants with a total capacity of 17.7 gigawatts were recorded in the market master data register.

In addition, projects on arable and grassland areas in disadvantaged regions in all federal states may continue to participate in the tender process.

An Important Building Block for PV Expansion

With a tender volume of more than two gigawatts, the Federal Network Agency is continuing the expansion path for solar energy. At the same time, the tender shows that key elements of Solar Package I are still under review at the European level, meaning that important changes for project developers and investors are still pending for the time being.

Further information is available on the Federal Network Agency’s website