Tender

The Alqueva Dam on the Guadiana River, in southern Portugal, will host ten floating PV projects mostly financed by a €45 million Council of Europe Development Bank loan.

In this year’s tender, which is open to PV and wind projects with a generation capacity of more than 1 MW, solar may have better prospects after securing only 1 MW in last year’s exercise. The Energy Regulatory Office also announced the auction for sub-1 MW projects will be held on December 10.

The energy provider concluded its second renewables auction on November 13, and has contracted 121.6 MW of wind and solar. Selected projects will be granted a 15-year PPA and will have to begin commercial operations in 2023.

According to the bidding terms published by the National Energy Commission, project proposals may be submitted by June 11 and the results will be announced on June 19. Successful bidders will secure a 15-year power supply deal and some 5.6 TWh of electricity is expected to be generated annually as a result of the new capacity.

The Turkish government is planning to assign 100 solar projects with a capacity of 10 MW each across 39 different provinces via a new procurement exercise. The tender will be held on April 20, 2020.

The African country has joined the World Bank’s Scaling Solar Program. Two PV plants will be located in Touba and Laboa, in the northeast of the country.

PV is expected to claim 44% of the clean energy capacity needed to generate 2.4 TWh of electricity in the next two years but potentially gas driven co-generation is also set for big gains. The Ministry of Economy could announce the first auction this year. Energy company Slovenský plynárenský priemysel will be the off-taker.

The EU member state added 418 MW of new solar in the first six months of the year and its energy regulator expects another 1.4 GW in the years ahead, as a result of the METAR incentives scheme introduced in 2017. The regulator has also announced a pilot renewables auction with the results expected early next year.

Google pre-qualified bidders and used reverse auctions to obtain the lowest price for renewable energy. Reverse auctions for corporate purchases could potentially benefit solar developers, if their transparency and simplicity can influence more corporations to procure green power.

Saudi energy giant ACWA Power won the tender for the project in August thanks to a lowest final electricity price offer of $0.02752/kWh. Construction of the facility, which will use bifacial panels, is expected to be complete by April 2021.