Portugal

The Portuguese government has published the final results and a list of all projects selected in the procurement exercise. French IPP Akuo is the developer behind the record bid of €0.0147/kWh, which was for one of three projects it won in the auction. The second- and third-lowest winning bids were €0.01637/kWh and €0.0171/kWh, while the highest was €0.03116/kWh. Overall, the authorities allocated 1.15 GW of solar in the oversubscribed auction, down from initial plans for around 1.4 GW.

Antonio Delgado Rigal, chief executive of energy forecasting service Aleasoft, says the lowest final price of €0.0147/kWh announced by the Portuguese government from its recent solar auction does not reflect the real costs of PV and is no indicator of the future price of power in the electric market. More details of the auction are emerging and Iberdrola and Akuo appear big winners.

Projects with capacity 10-50 MW can compete for grid connection with a voltage of 15-60 kV. Projects applying for a connection with a higher voltage will have to have more than 50 MW of generation capacity.

The Portuguese government plans to allocate over 2 GW of PV capacity through two procurement exercises to be held in June and January. Among the potential bidders — who Portugal’s state secretary for energy, João Galamba, expects to meet soon — there is a range of different Portuguese and foreign players of varying sizes.

The Portuguese utility is seeking permission to deploy a 4 MW floating solar plant at the Alqueva water reservoir in southern Portugal. The solar array will feature around 10,000 PERC half-cell solar modules.

While preparing for the country’s first, 1.35 GW solar tender in June, state secretary for energy João Galamba has revealed another procurement exercise will be held in January and rejected criticism next month’s auction has been badly designed.

The utility could invest up to €7 billion in renewable energy projects up to 2022.

Portugal’s government has approved its 2018-2027 plan to strengthen its grid to integrate large volumes of renewable energy. Environment minister João Matos Fernandes has also revealed the solar auction planned for next summer will offer around 1.75 GW of capacity.

Switzerland-based Edisun Power has acquired a 49 MW solar project in northeastern Portugal which is expected to be completed in the second half of next year. Cubico has secured financing for three operational PV facilities with a 29.6 MW capacity in the south of the country.

Solar is expected to play a leading role in the Portuguese Government’s new energy plan, which includes the goals of covering 80% of the country’s total power demand with clean energy by 2030, and electrifying 65% of its economy by 2050.