Solar auctions: setting a viable bid

In February 2023, 94 Swiss photovoltaic projects secured support in the first auction. The figure sounds reassuring: more than four out of five applications received an award. Yet that ratio concealed the more dangerous decision: how much support should a project request per kilowatt without making the installation impossible to finance or deliver? A lower bid improves its ranking but reduces the support available. A higher bid protects more of the project economics but may fall outside the available auction volume. This market insight reconstructs that dilemma from the official 2023 results and explains it using Pronovo’s published 2026 process. It follows the route taken by an actual project owner: eligibility, bid preparation, ranking, decision, construction and payment. It also identifies a concrete initial engagement that a specialist can sell before submission—without promising an award or presenting a grant as revenue. General analysis based on official sources available on 6 August 2026. It is not a substitute for a technical study, financial or legal advice, or Pronovo’s decision.

Switzerland’s first photovoltaic auction in 2023 revealed that an eligible project still had to compete on price. Pronovo received 116 applications, awarded support to 94 and supported 35 MW, with successful bids ranging from CHF 360 to CHF 640 per kilowatt.

The Federal Council published these results on 16 February 2023. They describe one auction round, not the likelihood of success in every later round. Dividing 94 by 116 gives approximately 81%, but that ratio says nothing about how many files were incomplete, the capacity proposed in each bid or the last price accepted. Turning it into a new project’s “chance of winning” would therefore be misleading.

The range of CHF 360–640/kW is more informative: project owners did not all ask for the same level of support. For a 500 kW installation, those endpoints would represent one-off payments of CHF 180,000 and CHF 320,000 respectively. This calculation illustrates only the mechanical effect of the bid price; it reconstructs no project in the round and includes no possible bonuses.

How to read the chart. Twenty-two applications did not receive an award in this round. The public data does not establish a precise reason for each one.

Chart source. Federal Council, Strong interest in auctions to promote photovoltaic installations, 2023.

The first lesson is therefore a decision principle: eligibility opens the door; price and the capacity available in the auction then determine the ranking. A project owner must prepare for these two tests separately.

Before calculating a bid, the project needed an identified site, eligible capacity, no self-consumption, construction readiness, a clarified grid connection, credible financing and documented rights. A sound spreadsheet cannot rescue a project that cannot be delivered within the required period.

Pronovo currently states that a participating installation must have capacity of at least 150 kW and feed all its generation into the grid for at least twenty years. It must be ready to build, and construction must not have started before the award. Where planning permission is required, it should already have been obtained; any grid reinforcement and the financing should also have been clarified.

The administrative file also links the future operator to the land and the payment. It includes the site, plot number and a recent land-register extract and, where the parties differ, the owner’s consent, a power of attorney or an assignment. Only one bid may be made for each plot in each round. These records are not decorative: they prevent an unready project from being ranked before the applicant controls its essential conditions.

In 2026, participation costs CHF 300 and the fee is non-refundable. This is marginal beside the cost of a large installation, but it draws a clear line between an internal model and an actual submission. More importantly, a submitted bid cannot be changed. The final review must therefore take place before submission, not after a missing assumption comes to light.

How to read the diagram. Price comes only after the technical, land-rights and financial assessment. An early submission may make a project visible; it does not make it deliverable.

Text alternative. The project owner first checks the site, rights, permission, grid connection, costs, financing and timetable. Only then do they calculate a bid or decide not to submit.

Diagram sources. Pronovo, Conditions of participation and Information and documents required to participate in a photovoltaic auction.

A competitive bid starts with the project’s economic requirement and is then tested against the cap and competing bids. The owner must know the minimum support that makes the financing defensible; bidding below that threshold to improve the ranking merely transfers the shortfall to cash or margin.

The right question is not “what price won in 2023?” but “what price can our project sustain today?” Module, structure, grid-connection, study, financing and operating costs belong to the actual project. Output and electricity revenue depend on the site, marketing contract and market assumptions. A historical range replaces none of these inputs.

For an auction of the high one-off payment, the bid is expressed in CHF per kW. The theoretical requirement can be written as:

minimum support = total investment + risk reserve − available equity − secured debt − present value of net cash flows accepted by the lender.

This is not a complete financial model. It does, however, reveal where the shortfall sits. Reducing a bid by CHF 100/kW on a 500 kW project cuts requested support by CHF 50,000. That sum does not vanish: lower costs, additional equity, more debt or stronger future cash flows must absorb it.

The person bearing the financial risk should approve the walk-away price. The engineering consultant may consolidate assumptions; the developer may negotiate costs; and the lender may set its requirements. None of them should reduce the bid on commercial instinct when the downside case has not been recalculated.

Pronovo ranked eligible bids from the lowest to the highest price and awarded support until the announced capacity was exhausted. Where bids at the cut-off price were equal, the capacity that could still fit within the available volume affected the decision; the award therefore remained specific to the price, capacity and round.

Pronovo’s published process clearly separates assessment from ranking. Bids that fail the conditions of participation are rejected. The others receive a provisional award in the prescribed order until the round’s volume is filled. Pronovo announces the deadline, capacity in MW and maximum permitted value in advance.

This explains why a “valid” bid may remain outside the available volume. The project is not necessarily poor; other projects simply requested less support in that round. Conversely, a very low bid may secure an award while weakening the financing. The auction optimises allocation of public support. It does not certify the successful bidder’s private return.

The rules have also evolved since the first round. In 2026, Pronovo runs four annual deadlines and two parallel auctions: the high one-off payment, quoted in CHF/kW, and the sliding market premium, quoted in centimes/kWh. A project owner must select the appropriate instrument and cannot combine their units, payment patterns and risks in one comparison.

This table describes Pronovo’s published framework in 2026. It does not imply that either instrument is superior. The choice depends on the project, financing structure, price exposure and investors’ tolerance for risk.

An award became a payment only after compliant construction, commissioning and submission of the required records. For the high one-off payment, Pronovo states that payment is made no later than three months after notice of commissioning; the project owner must therefore finance the earlier stages by other means.

Pronovo currently allows twenty-four months from the final award’s entry into force to commission the installation. The owner must then submit the notice and certification within the applicable period. Where the records are complete and the system compliant, the final amount is communicated and paid. An award is therefore neither cash available on the day of the decision nor an advance towards the first construction invoices.

How to read the timeline. The cash requirement arises before public support is paid. The project must therefore survive the development and construction period financially.

Timeline sources. Pronovo, Detailed photovoltaic auction process; Federal Council, results of the round held on 1 February 2023.

The delivery risk is now explicit: failure to commission within twenty-four months may exclude the site from auctions for five years. This consequence rules out treating an award as a free option. Before bidding, the owner must be able to explain who finances, who builds, who manages the grid connection and what happens if cost or timing drifts.

A grant was neither the provider’s commercial revenue nor its margin: subject to the scheme’s conditions, it reduced part of the installation’s financing requirement. Revenue came from an actual sale; margin was that revenue less the attributable delivery costs.

Five measures must be tracked separately. Investment cost is what the installation requires to be built. Awarded support is a conditional public contribution. Cash describes the funds available when invoices fall due. Specialist revenue is the fee invoiced for a study, review or support engagement. Specialist margin exists only after deducting expert time, external purchases, tools and any rework.

Confusing these levels creates two illusions. The first is saying that a project “receives 60%” when the high one-off payment may cover up to 60% of the investment costs of reference installations, not necessarily 60% of every actual invoice. The second is counting future support as money available before construction. In both cases, the project becomes easier to sell than to finance.

Commercial communication must remain exact: the specialist sells a better-prepared decision, not public money. They may improve file quality, make assumptions comparable and identify a walk-away point. Pronovo retains assessment and allocation; the lender retains its financing decision; and the project owner retains delivery risk.

The initial purchase could be a paid auction-readiness review: project qualification, document checks, consolidation of assumptions, calculation of the minimum sustainable bid and a decision to submit or stop. The deliverable was not an award, but a file on which the project owner could make a reasoned decision.

This entry offer starts with a named project and ends with a documented decision. The client buys a conditions review, gap list, bid-price scenarios and a recommendation to proceed, correct or stop. Planning permission, grid connection, financing and Pronovo’s ranking remain outside the promise.

The payer may be a developer, owner, producer or investor. Pricing, duration, margin and collection time must be confirmed with a Swiss partner before acquisition begins.

How to read the table. Every deliverable must lead to a specific decision. A generic list of documents is not yet a high-value service.

Project owners can be found by combining maturity signals, land ownership, announced projects, grid-connection requirements and investment responsibility. Acquisition must open a conversation about decision quality; it must never suggest that a channel or adviser guarantees an award.

Research may combine announced projects, planning permissions, property portfolios, commercial sites and referrers. Search, content, professional networks, events, email, telephone, voice messages and targeted outreach remain channels to test. The right channel depends on the payer and the project’s maturity.

Qualification screens out sub-threshold systems, planned self-consumption, insecure rights, unassessed grid connections and absent financing at an early stage. It reduces the apparent volume but protects specialist time.

How to read the diagram. Acquisition stops when the project cannot be qualified or the review has no buyer. Submission and the award remain outside getfishnet’s promise.

Text alternative. Accounts are identified, qualified against an actual project and invited to examine a specific decision. Only a confirmed need leads to a focused engagement whose collection and margin are then verified.

The model is validated only after qualified conversations, fees collected and measured margin. These figures still require partner evidence; official auction volumes do not prove the size of getfishnet’s accessible market.

The relationship could continue only when a new event required a fresh decision: another round, a cost change, a revised grid connection, a new site or delivery monitoring. Continuity had to rest on a useful deliverable, not an artificial subscription attached to the first review.

After submission, a competent partner may monitor records or commissioning within a clear scope. After deferral, they update the assumptions when planning permission, the connection or financing changes. After rejection, a new review requires a change in the project or auction round.

Continuity is measured through collected revenue, margin and deadlines met. Long-term support does not automatically create a long-term advisory contract.

The articles on the Electricity Act and the Solar Express extend the analysis to the energy framework and the eligibility of an Alpine site respectively. The Energy and solar market archive should display only validated articles.

The Federal Council verifies the historical results, Pronovo the current auction process and Fedlex the regulatory framework. Citations are provided without external links; addresses and access dates remain in the private evidence file.

References: Federal Council, Strong interest in auctions to promote photovoltaic installations (2023) and Strengthening support instruments (2022); Pronovo, Auctions for photovoltaic installations, Detailed process and Required documents; Fedlex, Ordinance on the Promotion of Electricity Production from Renewable Energy.

The analysis concludes that auctions create a complex decision that clients can buy help with, but do not yet prove a profitable market for getfishnet. The opportunity depends on a credible partner, accessible new project owners, a review that produces prompt collected revenue and enough capacity to deliver without promising an award.

The 2023 round made the dilemma visible: a lower bid may improve ranking while weakening the project. A specialist creates value by connecting conditions, financing, price and delivery before the bid becomes irreversible.

getfishnet can work with you to build a tailored acquisition strategy covering targets, angles, channels, qualification and the first purchase. The test compares this opportunity with your current challenges and checks how well our development capabilities fit together.