Russia may auction off just 57 MW of solar in 2018

Overall, the Russian government is reportedly set to allocate around 1 GW of renewable energy capacity next year, but wind is expected to have the largest share.

The Orsk solar photovoltaic plant, owned by Russian telecommunication company T Plus, is located in Russia's Orenburg region.

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The Russian government is planning to considerably reduce the share of solar in the auctions it will hold next year in favor of prioritizing wind power projects, according to the local wind power association RAWI.

The association, which cites a statement from Russian First Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Texler, claims that next year’s auctions will allocate 899 MW of wind and only 57 MW of solar. More details on when the auctions will be held were not provided.

In the 2017 renewable energy auction, which was held in June, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation had allocated approximately 520 MW of PV capacity and a total of 2.2 GW of renewable energy generation capacity. Wind had the largest share, with 1.65 GW of assigned contracts.

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The reduced volume for PV in 2018, on the other hand, may depend on the low target for solar that the Russian government has set for 2024, which is only 1.52 GW of solar capacity in its wholesale market.

Russia had reached 540 MW of installed PV capacity at the end of last year. Of this, 60 MW was installed in 2015, while another 70 MW was connected to the grid in 2016. The remaining 400 MW comes from several PV plants located in Crimea, which were seized by local authorities after the region was annexed to Russia in 2014.

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