Hungarian utility concludes own 300 MW PV auction

The MVM Zold Generacio unit of Hungarian utility Magyar Villamos Művek Zártkörűen működő Részvénytársaság (MVM), has concluded the solar power auction it had launched in October 2019, according to a document published in the European public procurement journal Tenders Electronic Daily. Through the procurement exercise, the company sought to contract 300 MW of solar generation capacity.

The utility has selected seven undisclosed bidders in the auction. The combined capacity of the submitted projects was not disclosed.

The HUF140 billion ($448 million) of tendered project capacity should be built within two years. The procurement made available generation capacity lots ranging in size from 300 kW to 60 MW.

The energy company, which operates 2.5 GW of Hungary's 8.5 GW power generation fleet, already has 100 MW of operational solar projects across the country.

Hungary had around 1.27 GW of solar generation capacity at the end of 2019, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

The government is promoting large scale solar through renewable energy auctions, the first of which, in March, contracted 131.4 MW of solar projects. The tender allocated 60 projects, split between 88.6 MW of 1-20 MW facilities and 42.8 MW of 300 kW-1 MW arrays. The lowest solar electricity price offered was HUF20.20/kWh ($0.0646) for a 20 MW plant and the final average price for the larger projects was HUF21.69/kWh and for the smaller, HUF24.81.