French and German onshore wind auction results call for more volumes

France and Germany held successful onshore wind auction rounds. Together they awarded more than 3 GW of new onshore wind capacity. Upon commissioning, these volumes will strengthen the countries’ energy security and help bring down power prices. But these auctions also stress the need for more market visibility if Europe is to deliver on its electrification agenda.

Onshore wind will remain the bulk of new wind energy installations across Europe. Last year 94% of new wind energy capacity was built on land. This trend will continue with onshore accounting for nearly 80% of forecasted wind energy installations between now and 2030.

France and Germany recently held successful onshore wind auctions. Both auctions were heavily oversubscribed, with the strong competition resulting in low strike prices for new wind energy. This will help bring down electricity prices for households and industry.

But the auction results in France and Germany also reveal very challenging market dynamics that needs to be addressed by Governments with better market visibility.

France: Low ambitions and uncertainty around future auctions

France’s latest auction round awarded 0.8 GW of new capacity. The auction was heavily oversubscribed with 2.4 GW of projects bidding in. Competition between bids led to an average strike price of 77€/MWh, around 10€/MWh lower than in recent rounds.

Repowering dominated the round – 66% of awarded projects were repowering projects. That’s in part thanks to France’s recent decision to simplify permitting for certain repowering projects.

But it’s not all good news. The real reasons for the high number of bids are France’s low onshore wind ambitions and the lack of visibility for auctions beyond 2026. This uncertainty forced many projects to bid in this auction – including some projects that haven’t yet secured all permits.

“France squeezing a big onshore wind pipeline into 2 small auctions this year brings prices down. OK. But what it shows, really, is project developers rushing through the gate. France’s onshore wind pipeline is a huge asset. Europe finally wants to shift from imported fossil fuels to domestic electricity. French industry, buildings and transport need competitive power at scale. Onshore wind can deliver that, it will take genuine multi-year auction planning.”, says Pierre Tardieu, WindEurope Chief Policy Officer.

Germany: What’s a healthy level of competition? 

Germany continues to show the rest of Europe that it’s possible to remove long-lasting permitting bottlenecks. They permitted a remarkable 21 GW of onshore wind projects last year and are on track to beat that in 2026. After years of painful undersubscriptions, these permits have led to heavy oversubscriptions in recent auction rounds.

That helps bring down the price of onshore wind. Germany’s latest auction round awarded 2.5 GW of new onshore wind. The average strike price fell to €51/MWh, with the lowest successful bid coming in at €44/MWh.

In comparison, Fraunhofer ISE estimates the cost of new German nuclear at 139-490/MWh – up to 11 times higher. New gas (109-187€/MWh), new hard coal (173-293€/MWh) and new lignite (151-257€/MWh) power plants would also generate electricity at much higher cost for German households and industry.

But also here, it’s not all good news. Oversubscriptions mean fierce competition, which can come with unhealthy cost pressure on developers. Such levels of competition might push project developers into risky bids they cannot deliver on. One way to avoid this risk of non-realisation is by offering additional auction volumes.

“Wind energy already delivers energy security and boosts Germany’s competitiveness. Germany has a healthy pipeline of permitted projects. It now needs wind volumes, not artificial scarcity. The Government must not waste any time on starting the announced 12 GW of additional auctions by 2030”, says Pierre Tardieu.