Average bids for solar in Argentina “mini” auction reach $57.9/MWh

Argentina’s Secretariat of Energy announced that 31 renewable energy projects will compete in the final phase of the so-called “mini” auction for clean energies, whose results will be announced on July 22. Overall, 52 projects had been admitted to the preliminary phase of the procurement exercise.

According to the Argentinean government, the average bids for the solar technology – at $57.9/MWh – are the lowest among all pre-qualified bids. The second cheapest technology is wind at $58.2/MWh, followed by small hydro at $103.6, biomass at $106.1, landfill biogas at $129.5 MW, and biogas at $159.0.

The Secretariat of Energy said that it hopes to bring approximately 300 MW online through this fourth round of the RenovAr program, called “Ronda 3”. In its previous announcements, however, the expected capacity was said to be around 400 MW, with 350 MW from solar and wind facilities.

Projects for small and medium size enterprises

“This new round of the RenovAr Program aims to enable small and medium-sized enterprises have their own renewable projects throughout the country, which also represents an economic advantage for the system thanks to the savings in transport and distribution of electricity and the displacement of less efficient energy”, said Argentina's undersecretary of renewable energies, Sebastián Kind.

Selected projects must be be connected in medium and low voltage networks of 13.2, 33 and 66 kV. The size limit is 10 MW, with a minimum output of 500 kW. Due to the smaller size of project the procurement round has been dubbed the “mini Ronda.”

Under the preivous three rounds of the RenovAr program 1.7 GW of solar capacity was allocated. In the last auction the lowest price for solar was $0.0404/kWh, with the highest and average prices $0.0523 and $0.0435, respectively.