Last year, 137GW of renewable energy capacity was acquired globally through government tenders, up 10% year-on-year, despite industry headwinds, logistics tensions and an energy crisis.

Solar photovoltaic power is the renewable energy source with the most winning bids through government tenders, reaching 61GW, accounting for 44% of the total. Solar’s share of global government tenders has declined compared with 59% in 2022.

In 2023, solar PV, onshore wind (34 GW, 24% of the total) and offshore wind (31 GW, 23% of the total) account for approximately 91% of allocated capacity. The remaining 9% are hydro, biofuels, geothermal, solar thermal and tidal technologies.

Ana Fernandez Garcia, senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said: "Onshore wind capacity in successful tenders rebounded in 2023, but was overshadowed by a decline in solar PV generation."

Last year, solar PV and onshore wind tenders were undersubscribed. Wood Mackenzie said 30% of the tender volume for 2023 was not allocated due to a lack of interested bidders, and zero bids also resulted in contracts being canceled late in the project development phase.

Looking forward, global renewable energy installed capacity is expected to exceed 100GW in 2024. Wood Mackenzie said more than 60GW will be offshore wind.

Fernandez Garcia said, "Government tendering is the main support program for global renewable energy development. The volume of tenders is increasing year by year, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa will account for more than 50% of the expected tender volume."

"Individual major markets such as China will continue to dominate. So far, Germany has announced that it will hold 25GW of renewable energy tenders this year."

For example, Germany announced in January that the bidding for ground-mounted photovoltaic projects had ended, with nearly 5.5GW of bid capacity submitted and oversubscription reaching three and a half times. Of the record 574 bids submitted, 124 were successful, with a total capacity of 1.6GW, and an average price of 0.0517 euros/kWh ($0.062/kWh), 1.3 cents lower than the previous round.