Argentina: World Bank $250 million guarantee for RenovAr program

Share

The Argentinian Ministry of Treasury has revealed the World Bank provided a new guarantee of $250 million for utility-scale renewable energy projects selected in the third round of the nation’s RenovAr program. The guarantee package was approved by the international financial institution back in March.

The ministry said the guarantees would support private investment through the country’s Renewable Energy Fund. Such investments, the World Bank said in March, are expected to represent nine times the value of its guarantee – some $2.25 billion.

In the third round of the RenovAr program – ronda 2 – the Argentinian Ministry of Energy and Mines assigned 816.3 MW of PV capacity, with the lowest auction price for solar $40.4/MWh and the highest and average prices $52.3/MWh and $43.5/MWh, respectively.

The new guarantee supplements the $480 million guarantee the World Bank provided in March 2017 to RenovAr projects awarded in 2016 – in rounds 1 and 1.5 – and which began to take effect in August. Under the first two rounds of the program, the government approved 900 MW of solar projects.

Popular content

The government said in August it will not hold a fourth round of the RenovAr program for large-scale renewable projects this year. The reasons given were grid constraints and difficult financing conditions, which may have raised prices in the bidding round.

A mini renewable energy auction for 400 MW, however, was launched in mid-November.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.