A pilot tender by the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) will award 20-year, price-premium-based contracts for utility-scale PV installations with a total installed capacity of 20MW, of which 2.4MW can be developed in Germany.

Rasmus Zink Sørensen, a special advisor at the DEA, told Recharge: "This will be the first competitive tender for solar PV capacity in Denmark, and one of the first tenders of RE capacity in the European Economic Area (EEA) that is partly open to installations located in at least one other EEA member state."

Denmark is currently negotiating an agreement with Germany over the "mutual opening of PV tenders", he said, with the final administrative details of the auction not to be settled until that process is concluded.

Sørensen added: "We hope to measure both industry interest and which price levels are achievable in a Danish context. We anticipate a strong competition in the tender and hope to follow the good example set by Danish offshore wind tenders."

The tendering and contracting phase is to be completed this year, while first payments of price premiums are expected from January 2017 at the earliest.

The bilateral nature of the PV tender is mirrored in plans being laid by Denmark's offshore wind industry for possible future leasing of Danish waters to foreign governments for development.

The Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA) has floated the idea as part of a report setting out its vision for the sector out to 2030.

The potential for cross-border leases arises from Denmark having an excellent offshore wind development potential – often in relatively unchallenging shallow waters – that exceeds national demand. The estimated 31GW of potential in Danish waters of the North Sea alone outweighs Denmark's long-term offshore target of 18GW by 2050.

DWIA senior adviser Martin Risum Bøndergaard said the proposal – which the body is inviting the Danish government to consider as part of its planning for energy policy beyond 2020 – reflects the direction of travel being encouraged by the European Commission as part of its vision of an EU-wide 'energy union'.

Bøndergaard said: "Their view is that renewable deployment shouldn't be constrained to where the best subsidy schemes are, but instead by where the best resources are.

"At the same time, the message is that member states should coordinate in a way that makes it possible to utilise each nation's relative resources in the most cost-effective manner possible."

The DWIA official cautioned: "It's far too soon to suggest what a leasing scheme might look like. But what we're encouraging is that Danish politicians consider these options and analyse them fully."