European energy markets continue to move through an unprecedented transitional period. On the heels of pandemic-era disruptions, Europe’s energy crunch, the energy market repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the uncertainty around potential revisions to the electricity market to strengthen customer protections around volatile pricing that are proposed by the members of European parliament, the European renewable energy sector has weathered no shortage of challenges over the past few years. Thankfully, it has also shown remarkable resilience and a strong resolve to continue moving forward an accelerated transition to a clean energy economy.
Nonetheless, the PPA market has changed, likely for good. Today’s contracting environment requires a far more nuanced approach to risk-sharing between counterparties, and a need for developers to secure offtake even more effectively in order to recycle capital quickly and remain competitive.
To accelerate the energy transition, LevelTen Energy has created a powerful software ecosystem that allows PPA buyers and sellers to connect and transact with transparency, speed, and efficiency. As the world’s largest PPA marketplace, the LevelTen Platform has been invaluable to countless developers across Europe through providing an expansive network of buyers and important data insights that allow counterparties to get deals done with confidence. As PPA competition continues to grow, LevelTen is providing a competitive advantage for developers looking to find the best possible offtakers for their projects.
The LevelTen Energy Marketplace has emerged as the market for PPA counterparties to transact through. But we also know that developers need trustworthy PPA pricing intelligence to benchmark their offers with confidence, and to understand where they sit within the market. Instead of providing hypothetical, equation-driven PPA pricing “data” that attempts to show what PPA prices “could” or “should” be, the large volume of real PPA offers European developers upload to the LevelTen Platform allows us to aggregate and anonymize this pricing information, and provide the industry with immensely valuable pricing intelligence that reveals where the market truly lies.
At LevelTen, Serving the Needs of Developers Is Paramount
LevelTen’s strong relationships with the developer community has always been at the core of our business model. And indeed, many of LevelTen’s founders and employees are former developers themselves — allowing us to empathize with the needs and sensitivities of developers in everything we do. This includes a steadfast commitment to ensuring developers’ anonymity, and protecting the data they entrust to us. This is also why all of the pricing intelligence provided on the LevelTen Platform is subject to strict parameters around data curation and inclusion. Market data is never published if the underlying pool of PPA offer data does not meet our strict standards around the number and variety of projects, offers, and participating developers — ensuring developer anonymity is always preserved.
Just as importantly, the data developers upload to the LevelTen Platform — safeguarded through these rigorous standards — allows us to provide the renewable community with unprecedented insights into a variety of pricing intelligence across the full spectrum of offers: including prices split out by contract start date, tenor length, and much more. Developers also get real-time insights on their own projects, and those who update their projects’ information at least once per quarter receive a Developer Scorecard that shows how their projects stack up against other competing projects in their active markets. In other words, the data developers upload allows us to provide them in turn with a world of market insights that is greater than the sum of its parts.
LevelTen’s ability to accelerate the offtake for developers, combined with the provision of critical data insights, is why developer participation on the LevelTen Platform continues to grow rapidly. We have seen how this data has empowered PPA sellers and buyers to transact with greater confidence and speed, and we remain committed to providing the industry with the best possible PPA intelligence.
The German PPA Market Is Booming
Germany has occupied a central role in Europe’s energy transition, but the nature of renewable development and procurement in Germany is changing. Developers in Germany have historically benefited from government FiT schemes, but these programs increasingly do not provide the robust financial support they did during past decades. The support of these programs seems to be on the decline, which is reflective of the improvements that have been made in the renewable energy economics, and not due to a decrease in public support, as that remains strong. And while government contracts have their benefits, state auctions across Europe have shown that governments are not always accommodating the needs of developers when it comes to the new economics of project development. In fact, the uniqueness of CFDs in each country adds layers of complexity, which can be both a challenge and an opportunity. While this diversity reflects each nation's commitment to shaping its renewable energy sector, it can lead to lower liquidity and higher transaction costs for developers and investors operating across borders.
Many German developers are already thinking forward and moving past government contracts, diversifying their business strategies and increasing their focus on the PPA market. As private entities compete for the renewable capacity needed to meet their sustainability targets, corporations are often able to provide greater contractual flexibility and provide better terms for developers than government auctions, while still providing the revenue certainty developers need to secure project finance.
German regulators and German-headquartered companies continue to raise their decarbonization ambitions. As the PPA market grows, so too do opportunities for developers to enter into successful offtake agreements that further their organizational goals and move the energy transition forward. LevelTen has built the infrastructure required to accelerate clean energy transactions, and many German developers are already using LevelTen to connect with PPA offtakers quickly and successfully. Given the German market’s strong growth, we encourage German developers to sign up for access to the LevelTen Platform, and to upload their projects to allow a massive community of eager corporate buyers to connect with them.
Success In Today’s Market Demands Good Data
With their data safeguarded and anonymity preserved through LevelTen’s holistic protections, developers on the LevelTen Platform benefit from the full world of European market intelligence: accelerating business decisions and providing peace of mind that their offers and terms are in-market.
To help illustrate the insights the LevelTen Platform brings, we’ve produced a brief report, free for download below, that gives a snapshot into the German PPA market. The insights provided are only a small sampling of broader, more granular insights available to developers who post projects to the LevelTen Energy Marketplace. We hope the data provided here makes the benefits of participating in our Platform clear to any developers who are on the fence about joining this fast-growing PPA community.
With any questions about this data, how to sign up for the LevelTen Energy Marketplace, or to discuss the German PPA market, please do not hesitate to contact Andrés Acosta at andres.acosta@leveltenenergy.com, or schedule a meeting here.
Complete the information below to receive a free German PPA Market report.
