Argentina

The fifth round (Ronda 4) of the RenovAr program for large-scale solar and renewables will be held by the end of the year, according to the Argentinean Minister of Renewable Energy, Sebastián Kind. The procurement exercise will also include grid infrastructure projects.

Having put key PV projects into commercial operation, the company is capitalizing on their production. Scatec also has twice its current installed capacity under construction and nearly fourfold that amount – more than 4 GW – in the pipeline as 2018 expectations were surpassed.

The funds will be used by the Argentinian government for solar and other renewable energy projects selected in the third round of the program. The guarantee package was approved by the World Bank in March.

At the weekend’s G20 summit, a framework agreement for the project expansion was signed by project initiator Jemse SE and Chinese partners Power China and Shanghai Electric. The plant expansion will include the deployment of storage capacity. The project is one of two PV plants, totaling 400 MW, selected in round one of the RenovAr program for large-scale solar and renewable energies.

Through the tender, the province’s state-owned power provider Empresa Provincial de la Energía (EPE) intends to select PV power projects not exceeding 5 MW in size, and wind farms up to 10 MW. Selected projects will be awarded a 20-year PPA.

Some 350 MW will be divided between wind and solar for projects of 500 kW to 10 MW in scale. The ceiling price for solar and wind has been set at $60/MWh.

The new decree, which regulates the law for DG promulgated at the end of 2017, is intended to support distributed generation of renewable energy sources under net metering. The fund for DG, though, has shrunk by half in value thanks to currency depreciation.

The mini-tender will be held under the RenovAr program for large-scale renewables, but will be limited to projects not exceeding 10 MW in size. The quota for solar and wind will be around 350 MW. Auctions for projects larger than 10 MW were suspended by the Argentinean government in early August.

The sixth edition of Intersolar South America in Sao Paulo has showed unequivocally that both international and Brazilian players firmly believe in the big potential of the Brazilian solar market, despite the current political uncertainty and usual economic challenges. Overall, the event was larger and of a higher quality than last year, while in the absence of future dates for new large-scale solar auctions, and stable conditions for private PPAs, DG is emerging as the market’s main driver.

The planned fourth round of the RenovAr program will probably not be held this year or next. The Argentinian government says grid constraints and difficult financing conditions may increase the auction’s prices.