Solar claims all the 700 MW allocated in Poland’s latest small-scale renewables auction

The latest auction for small-scale solar and wind installations held by the Polish Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) saw PV developers secure all of the offered capacity of around 700 MW, as was the case in the same type of auction held last year.

The results of the fifth procurement round held for projects with a generation capacity of up to 1 MW were published last week after the ERO staged the AZ/8/2020 auction at the beginning of December.

In the latest round, the ERO reported a minimum price of PLN228.7/MWh ($61.2), which compares to PLN269.0 a year earlier. The Polish authorities have agreed to buy around 11.76 TWh of solar power through the auction.

“Due to the huge number of submitted bids, the auction winners were selected not only on the basis of the selling price but also by the order in which they were submitted,” the authority stressed, adding that the Polish legislation establishes that, in the event that several auction participants offer the same lowest selling price for electricity produced from renewable energy sources, the order of the submitted bids decides which projects will be prioritized.

Poland may reach its target of 7.8 GW of solar by 2030 – as outlined in the National Plan for Energy and Climate – by the middle of the decade, according to a new report by the Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej (IEO).