Hungary allocates 131.4 MW of PV in renewables auction

The Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Authority (HEPURA) has published a list of 72 clean energy projects that it selected in the country’s first technology-neutral renewable energy auction in late October.

All of the winning projects will be based on PV technology, with the sole exception of a 500 MW landfill gas plant based on biomass.

The energy regulator, which originally preselected 186 energy projects for the procurement exercise, has allocated a total of 131.4 MW of solar. That capacity consists of 60 projects, including 42.8 MW of installations ranging in size between 300 kW and 1 MW, and 11 arrays with a combined capacity of 88.6 MW, ranging in size from 1 MW to 20 MW.

The final average price was HUF 24.81 ($0.078)/kWh in the first category and HUF 21.69 ($0.068)/kWh in the second. The lowest bid of HUF 20.20/kWh was submitted for a 20 MW solar plant.

HEPURA will grant 15-year feed-in premium payments to the successful projects to top up wholesale electricity prices. The tender is part of the Hungarian government's METAR-KÁT renewables incentive program, which was launched in 2017. The European Commission approved the scheme in July. It went into force in October with a 10-year budget of HUF 45 billion.

According to HEPURA's most recent statistics, Hungary had cumulatively installed around 1.14 GW of solar power by the end of June 2019.