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Glossary · Energy industry & energy transition

Capture Price

Capture price market value electricity price renewable energies electricity market

The capture price describes the average electricity price that a generation plant, a power station or an entire generation technology achieves during its actual feed-in times. It is usually stated in euros per megawatt hour. It is formed as the volume-weighted average of electricity prices in the hours or quarter-hours in which the plant generates and sells electricity. For a solar plant, therefore, the average of all exchange prices over a year does not count. What matters are precisely the prices of the periods in which it feeds in.

The term combines two quantities that must be considered separately in the electricity system: the price profile of the market and the generation profile of a plant. The simple average price on the spot market shows how expensive electricity was on average over a period. The capture price, by contrast, shows what share of this price level a particular generation structure actually achieved. For dispatchable power plants, this value can be influenced through dispatch planning. For wind and solar plants, it depends heavily on the weather, and also on how many plants feed in at the same time and how high demand is in those hours.

Price in the right hours

For each time unit, the quantity of electricity generated is multiplied by the respective market price. The results are summed over the period under consideration and then divided by the total quantity generated. Hours with high feed-in therefore carry more weight than hours with low feed-in. A simple example: a plant generates 10 MWh at 20 euros/MWh and 2 MWh at 120 euros/MWh. Its capture price is (200 + 240) / 12 ≈ 36.7 euros/MWh, although the simple average of the two prices is 70 euros/MWh. Anyone working with German support parameters must convert the units. The EEG states market values in cents per kilowatt hour. One cent per kilowatt hour corresponds to 10 euros per megawatt hour.

This weighting is the core of the concept. If a technology produces mainly in hours with low prices, its capture price is below the average market price. If it produces predominantly in hours with high prices, it is above it. The capture price is therefore not a general electricity price. It measures the revenue of a specific generation profile. Because negative prices are also included in the calculation, it can turn out very low in individual months.

This is particularly evident with photovoltaics. Solar plants generate their electricity at largely the same hours of the day. If there is a lot of solar power in the market in those hours, the exchange price often falls, in extreme cases into negative territory. With wind energy, a similar effect occurs in windy periods. This is referred to as the cannibalisation effect: additional plants of the same technology depress, during their shared feed-in times, the price they themselves achieve. How strong this effect is can be seen in the official German annual market values for 2025. The average spot market price was 8.932 ct/kWh (about 89 euros/MWh). Onshore wind achieved 7.441 ct/kWh, offshore wind 8.059 ct/kWh and solar only 4.508 ct/kWh, that is about 45 euros/MWh.

Distinction from market price, market value and levelised cost of electricity

The capture price is easily confused with neighbouring terms. The exchange electricity price is the price of a specific time unit on the wholesale market, for example on the day-ahead market. The average market price, often stated as the base price, averages these prices over all hours of a period. It does not matter when a plant actually generates. The capture price, by contrast, refers to the quantity generated by a plant or technology.

Closely related is the market value within the meaning of the German EEG 2023. For onshore wind, offshore wind and solar, Annex 1 to the EEG prescribes a calculation that corresponds to a standardised capture price. For each quarter-hour, the spot market price is multiplied by the generation of the respective technology. The sum is divided by the total generation in the month (monthly market value) or in the calendar year (annual market value). The basis is not the measurement of individual plants. An online extrapolation by the transmission system operators for the entire technology, based on reference plants, is used. Output reductions by the grid operator or in direct marketing are not taken into account. For hydropower, biomass, geothermal energy and landfill gas, sewage gas and mine gas, by contrast, the average spot market price simply applies. An individual project can deviate significantly from the technology-wide market value, for example because of location, orientation, technical availability, curtailment or marketing.

The capture rate sets the capture price in relation to the average market price. With a capture rate of 80 percent, a technology achieved four fifths of the average price in the period under consideration. Values above 100 percent mean that generation was predominantly in higher-priced hours. The annual market values for 2025 yield, by calculation, capture rates of about 50 percent for solar, 83 percent for onshore wind and 90 percent for offshore wind. The capture rate is well suited to comparing technologies or years. It does not, however, replace the absolute price information.

The capture price must be clearly distinguished from the levelised cost of electricity. Levelised cost of electricity indicates what costs are incurred per megawatt hour generated over the lifetime of a plant. The capture price indicates what market price is achieved for that megawatt hour. Whether a project is economically viable results only from the relationship between the two. In addition there are support rules, financing costs, marketing risks, grid connection costs and possible revenues from flexibility or ancillary services.

Significance for investment and financing

For investors, the capture price is a central revenue metric. A high average electricity price is of little use if one's own plant feeds in predominantly in low-price hours. Conversely, a flexible plant with few operating hours can be economically viable if it produces specifically in high-price hours. The capture price translates the temporal pattern of electricity generation into a financial quantity.

For wind and solar projects, the expected capture price influences the assessment of sites, technical design and marketing model. A photovoltaic plant with an east-west orientation usually generates somewhat less electricity per year than a south-facing plant. Because more of its production falls in the morning and evening hours, however, it can achieve a higher capture price. Whether this pays off overall depends on the respective price profile. Likewise, a wind site with somewhat lower annual production can be attractive if its feed-in profile correlates less strongly with the rest of the wind supply.

A power purchase agreement is also closely linked to the capture price. If a buyer pays a fixed price for the actual production of a plant, then, depending on the form of contract, the buyer assumes the risk that the market value of this production turns out lower or higher. Profile risk, volume risk and price risk should therefore be considered separately. The capture price above all makes profile risk visible.

For supported plants in Germany, the term also remains legally relevant. In supported direct marketing, the operator receives a market premium in addition to market revenues. It is calculated as the applicable value minus the monthly or annual market value and cannot become negative. For plants that were commissioned before 1 January 2023 or received an award before then, the monthly market value generally applies. For later plants, the annual market value applies. Because the reference value applies technology-wide, a plant with an above-average capture price keeps the additional revenue, while a below-average plant bears a revenue shortfall. If the market value of a technology falls, the premium paid rises for the same applicable value. Via the capture price, market design and support design are thus linked to each other.

A further effect concerns negative electricity prices. For new plants with an installed capacity of 2 kW or more that were commissioned or received an award on or after 25 February 2025, the entitlement to support under Section 51 EEG 2023 lapses from the very first quarter-hour with a negative price. For older plants, hourly thresholds apply depending on the year of commissioning and size. The periods without support are in part added to the support period. Solar parks in particular feed in a lot in such hours. Their effective revenue therefore increasingly depends on whether they can curtail output or store electricity during negative-price periods.

What the capture price shows and what it does not

A low capture price does not automatically mean that a technology is technically unsuitable or worthless in macroeconomic terms. It first shows that its feed-in is concentrated in times of low market prices. Such prices can arise from high simultaneous generation, low demand, grid bottlenecks, inflexible power plants or a lack of flexible loads. The term describes a market revenue under the applicable rules. It does not explain why the price profile looks the way it does.

Nor does a high capture price prove a high system benefit. A gas-fired power plant can achieve high prices because it produces in scarcity hours. These revenues then also cover fuel costs, CO₂ costs and availability risks and reflect scarcity. To assess security of supply, emissions or infrastructure needs, further metrics are required, such as residual load, firm capacity and system costs.

The capture price also does not contain all revenue and cost components. Balancing energy in the event of balancing group deviations, direct marketing costs, redispatch, curtailment, revenues from guarantees of origin or local grid restrictions can change the economic situation of a project considerably. In comparisons, the calculation basis must be disclosed. Some calculations use only the quantity actually fed in. Others, like the EEG market value, use a generation profile that does not take curtailments into account. Differences also arise from the underlying market (day-ahead or intraday), the temporal resolution and the treatment of negative prices.

Another misunderstanding is to treat the capture price as a fixed property of a technology. It depends on the composition of the power plant fleet, on grid expansion, on storage and demand flexibility, on electrolysers, heat pumps and electromobility, and on the rules of the electricity market. The years 2021 and 2022 show how strongly the general price level passes through. At that time, solar market values also rose sharply because of high gas prices. If flexible consumers respond more strongly to prices, additional demand arises in low-price hours. If storage facilities absorb electricity in cheap hours and release it later, they change the price profiles and thus future capture prices.

Connection with flexibility and market design

The capture price makes visible how much electricity is worth on the market at a given point in time. As the share of weather-dependent generation grows, this temporal dimension becomes more important. The annual quantity of renewable generation alone is not sufficient to understand revenues, support needs or investment incentives. Two plants with the same annual production can have very different capture prices if they feed in at different times.

As a result, the temporal behaviour of generation capacities comes to the fore. Flexibility acquires a price because it can shift generation, consumption or storage into more valuable hours. This concerns battery storage, flexible industrial processes, controllable heat pumps, electric vehicles and electrolysis. It also concerns conventional power plants, insofar as they respond quickly and reliably to price signals. A solar park with battery storage can, for example, sell midday electricity in the evening and thus lift the capture price of the overall system above the pure solar value.

For market design, the term is important because it shows what revenues an energy-only market makes possible through the pure supply of electricity. If technologies with high investment costs permanently achieve falling capture prices, questions arise about refinancing, support, hedging against price risks and the value of additional flexibility. These questions cannot be answered with the annual average price alone.

The capture price is a precise measure of the market value of a generation profile. It does not capture the entire benefit of a plant and does not replace an analysis of the grid, security of supply or cost distribution. But it makes clear that electricity is not just an annual quantity. Electricity is a time-bound good whose value depends on when and under what market conditions it is generated.

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Edited by eCMS on 11.11.2026 16:52

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