Unlocking the Potential of Non-Price Criteria in Wind Energy Auctions
Posted on July, 22 2025
Across Europe, more and more governments are using auctions to decide who gets to build new renewable energy projects, such as wind farms. In these auctions, developers compete by offering the lowest price for the electricity they will produce.
However, it’s not just about price, last year, the Net-Zero Industry Act introduced mandatory non-price criteria in renewable energy auctions for the first time. These criteria notably cover how projects will affect nature and local communities in the prequalification and award phases.
This position paper looks at how Member States can make the most out of these non-price criteria and provides concrete examples of ecological and social criteria.
This position paper looks at how Member States can make the most out of these non-price criteria and provides concrete examples of ecological and social criteria.
WWF’s policy recommendations:
Auction design:
- For auctions developed under the EU State Aid Guidelines on Climate and Energy, countries should make full use of the 30% threshold for non-price criteria in the award phase, and focus on ecological and social dimensions. For auctions that do not receive public financial support, and are therefore not subject to the 30% threshold, the share of the overall score dedicated to non-price criteria should exceed this benchmark.
- States should use ecological and social non-price criteria as prequalification criteria, setting a minimum threshold that all bidders must meet in order to participate in the auction.
- Non-price criteria in auctions should be measurable and scorable, and should incentivise the best possible achievement of a given objective (eg, mitigate negative impacts on ecosystems, foster local community engagement).
- The criteria should require the applicants to ensure the environmental and social impacts of the projects are monitored and that information is shared with the competent authorities.
- States must designate the competent authorities responsible for monitoring the implementation of the measures committed to. If requirements are not met there should be consequences, such as penalties.
- For offshore wind tenders, Member States should work together at sea basin level in order to agree on a common list of non-price criteria, with some flexibility depending on the specificities of each wind farm's location, which might include factors such as topology, size or local ecosystems.
Ecological criteria:
- States should set comprehensive ecological criteria in the prequalification and award phases. These should address all parts of the mitigation hierarchy (i.e. measures to avoid impacts, to reduce impacts and to restore and regenerate ecosystems), placing emphasis on avoiding impact first. These should also cover environmental and climate impacts throughout the whole lifecycle of the project.
- Criteria should require a net-positive contribution to biodiversity, in line with the EU Implementing Act on non-price criteria.
Social criteria:
- Member States should include social criteria in tenders that guarantee human and Indigenous Peoples’ rights and local community engagement. Those criteria should also support local and regional competitiveness by promoting short supply chains and the involvement of local workers.
- The European Commission should include social criteria in the forthcoming Citizens Energy Package to incentivise Member States systemically to apply the most effective criteria in auctions.
