New renewables auction in Argentina planned for Q3 - report

Argentina is planning a new renewable energy auction in July or August, Bloomberg said Friday, citing energy minister Juan Jose Aranguren.

The country will also be launching tenders this year for new transmission line capacity and for thermal power generation, according to the report. With that approach Argentina aims to reduce power generation costs and boost power supply reliability.

Aranguren was quoted as saying that there is enough grid capacity for the projects that have already secured contracts, but the country needs to add about 5,000 km of transmission lines in the next few years. It has a target of 20% of energy consumption coming from renewable energy by 2025, up from 8% planned for end-2017, and the expansion of the grid needs to happen in parallel with power generation capacity growth.

In Argentina’s two renewable energy tenders last year, RenovAr 1 and RenovAr 1.5, it awarded contracts to 1.1 GW and 1.3 GW of projects, respectively. Wind and solar proposals secured most of the capacity.

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