Q Cells confirms 315 MW of Portuguese solar-plus-storage awards

South Korea’s Hanwha Q Cells confirmed on Thursday that it has won 315 MW of new solar photovoltaic (PV) and storage capacity in Portugal’s second solar auction.

The company said that all six of its awards will materialise in the region of Alentejo and will include batteries as this is the first time in Portugal that bidders were invited to make proposals with a storage component. More specifically, Q Cells will build two solar parks of 109 MW and 99 MW in Ourique, a 50-MW plant in Ferreira do Alentejo and three 19-MW facilities in Beja, Vale do Gaio and Porteirinhos. Their completion is expected in June 2024.

Q Cells explained that it secured the grid capacity in exchange for paying a set annual price-per-capacity to the local national grid operator for 15 years. It will be able to sell the output of the plants to merchants, undertake energy arbitrage by time shifting and participate in ancillary services markets.

Overall, the company was the biggest winner in the 700-MW auction after securing half of the 12 available lots. Enel Green Power, meanwhile, won a 99-MW solar-plus-storage project in the same tender. The competitive process resulted in 670 MW of total awards and the world's lowest price bid of EUR 11.14 (USD 13.28) per MWh, tied to a 10-MW project.

Q Cells’ development pipeline in Portugal now reaches 2 GW and the company is already working on a 11.6-MW solar project in the country’s North, it said.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.192)

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