Federal Network Agency launches July tender for solar systems

29.05.2026

Source: E & M powernews

The Federal Network Agency has published the conditions for the tender for solar installations in the first segment as of July 1, 2026. Around 2.13 GW of capacity will be put out to tender.

The Federal Network Agency has announced the framework conditions for the tendering of solar installations in the first segment for the bidding deadline of July 1, 2026. The tender volume amounts to 2,134,567 kilowatts and thus corresponds to around 2.13 gigawatts of installed capacity. The maximum value for bids is 5.90 cents/kWh. Bids must be received by the Federal Network Agency in Bonn by the end of July 1, 2026. The bid deadline marks the end of the period for submitting bids under the EEG support scheme.

The Federal Network Agency expressly points out that no feed-in grid fees "as defined in the Federal Network Agency's orientation points on the participation of feed-in producers of February 17, 2026" will yet be charged to participants in the tender. The future situation will be clarified as part of the "Reform of the General Grid Fee System for Electricity (AgNes)".

The current tendering volume is part of the total volume of 9,900 MW planned for 2026. In accordance with the provisions of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), this is distributed evenly across the three annual bidding dates and adjusted by legally defined surcharges and discounts. According to the Federal Network Agency, the volume has not been reduced.

No feed-in grid fees levied yet

The maximum value of the bids for the upcoming deadline is 5.90 cents/kWh. Bids that exceed this value will be excluded from the award procedure. The upper limit is based on the average of the highest bids still awarded in the last three tendering rounds, increased by eight percent. For the bidding dates in July 2025, December 2025 and March 2026, these values were 6.26 cents, 5.30 cents and 5.10 cents respectively. The resulting value of 6.00 cents/kWh is limited to 5.90 cents/kWh by the statutory upper limit.

As in previous tenders, bids can also be submitted for ground-mounted systems on agricultural land. The prerequisite is that the installed capacity of corresponding plants recorded in the market master data register with commissioning from January 1, 2023 does not exceed the threshold value of 80 GW. On the relevant reporting date of March 31, 2026, the registered capacity was 17.7 GW and therefore well below this threshold. Bids for installations on arable land and grassland in disadvantaged areas can be considered in the award procedure in all federal states.

For certain special solar installations, the authority refers to existing regulations. These include agri-PV systems and systems on parking lots. The authority points out that no other new stipulations have been made for the tendering process to date.

According to the authority, there is still uncertainty regarding several regulations of the so-called Solar Package I. The European Commission's approval under state aid law is still lacking for various changes to the tender design. Until approval is granted, the regulations in the version dated May 15, 2024 will therefore continue to apply.

Further information on the tender is available on the website of the Federal Network Agency.

Author: Fritz Wilhelm