Spain to launch another 3 GW renewable energy auction before the summer

Spain’s Ministry of Industry has announced that it will hold another 3 GW renewable energy auction on an unspecified date “before the summer”. The Spanish government said that a significant amount of wind and PV power projects did not qualify for the 3 GW auction it held two weeks ago, and in which only a 1.5 MW solar project was ultimately selected, that will likely compete in the upcoming auction.

The ministry stressed that project proposals submitted in the latest auction were three times higher than the allocated capacity, which was granted almost exclusively to wind power plants. The Ministry added that the latest auction also showed that wind and solar are now competitive at market prices. The government also said that PV and wind will “compete on a competitive basis, in order to enable the selection of projects that are more cost efficient.” The government, however, has failed to specify how it will proceed in the event of a tie between solar and wind. In the latest auction, in fact, wind power was given priority in case of such an event.

More details about the upcoming auction were not given. Projects selected in Spain’s latest auction must begin delivering power in 2020. The auction resulted in contracts for €43/MWh, the lowest price ever registered for on-shore wind in Europe to date.

At the time, Spanish solar association Unión Española Fotovoltaica (UNEF) said in a press release that the result of the auction showed that PV was discriminated against, and that PV projects were not given the opportunity to prove their competitiveness. UNEF also said it will appeal to the Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission against the outcome of the auction.