Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism has published the decree approving the upcoming 3 GW wind and solar auction, which will be held on July 18, in the country’s official journal.
In the document, the ministry stressed that in this auction 3 GW of renewable energy generation capacity will be allocated. In May’s auction, the government initially said it aimed at allocating around 2 GW of renewable energy generation capacity, and that a further 1 GW could be allocated under certain conditions.
According to the text of the decree, only solar and wind will compete and not other renewable energy technologies, due to the high number of wind and PV projects submitted for the May’s 3 GW auction, which were not ultimately selected. Their number was three times higher than that of the selected projects, which were all for wind power plants, with the exception of a 1.5 MW PV plant.
According to Spanish press agency Europapress, the Spanish Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism Álvaro Nadal has said that PV technology will have more chance in this auction, due to the higher number of offers solar developers will be able to submit compared to wind companies, an opinion which was also share by local solar association UNEF. All projects which remained excluded from the previous auction will have the chance to compete in July's auction.
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Furthermore, a few more changes in the bidding rules could give solar more opportunities in the upcoming auction. The government, in fact, has increased the maximum discount which can be offered by project developers for both wind and solar by between 22% and 23%, according to Europapress.
The percentage reductions on the “standard value of the initial investment” have been set at 82% for wind (63.43% in the previous auction), and 66% for PV (51.22% in previous auction). But if there is a tie, wind would prevail, as standard wind projects provide more forecast operational hours, and that will be the tie-breaking criterion, as in May’s auction.
The minister also said he believes that the upcoming auction will enable Spain to increase the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix from 17.3% to 19.5%.
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