Spain okays 3-GW renewable energy auction

Spain's Council of Ministers approved on Friday the call for a new energy auction with a capacity of up to 3 GW of renewable energy projects.

The schedule of the tender, however, was not published on the Royal Decree.

The auction is technologically neutral, allowing the competition of different sources of renewable energy. In order to participate in the tender, the projects must be new and located in peninsular Spain. Cost efficiency will be the biggest decisive factor for the winners.

An announcement by Spain's energy ministry in January said the plan for the auction was to target 1,400 MW of wind power, 1,400 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power and 200 MW of other green capacities.

The winning projects have to start generating power by the end of 2019 so as to help meet Spain's target for 20% renewable energy in final energy consumption by 2020. In addition to that, the bidding should increase market competition and the penetration of green sources, as well as reduce energy dependence from abroad, the government said Friday.

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