Ecuador launches 500 MW renewables tender

From pv magazine Latam

Ecuador’s Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources of Ecuador has launched three different tenders to bring 900 MW of power generation capacity online and a transmission line.

Through one of the three procurement exercises – the Bloque de Energías Renovables No Convencionales – the Ecuadorian authorities intend to allocate 500 MW of installed power from hydroelectric, wind, solar, and biomass plants. These projects will be spread across different geographical regions of the country and their combined development is expected to require investments of US$875 million.

A second tender is for the construction of a transmission line connecting the National Interconnected System (SNI) with the Interconnected Electric Oil System (SIEP). The new line is intended to provide clean energy to the national oil industry and its construction should require an investment of $386 million. Through a third tender, the Ecuadorian government wants to build a 400 MW combined-cycle natural gas power plant.

Interested developers are permitted to submit their project proposals from today.

Ecuador announced in September a plan to tender for more than 1 GW of renewable energy. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Latin American country had installed just 28 MW of solar PV capacity by the end of 2020. Over the past seven years, it has deployed just 2 MW of PV.