Portugal postpones 700 MW solar auction to end of August
The government wants to launch before the summer a tender, with EU funds, of approximately 40 million euros, for renewable energy production such as biomethane and hydrogen.
The minister for Environment and Climate Action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, revealed in an interview to the newspaper Jornal Económico that the next auction of renewable energy in Portugal, for 700 MW of installed capacity, will be launched on June 8. This after last year the first solar auction has already awarded around 1400 MW, at an average tariff of 20,4 euros per MWh, with a lot awarded at 14,7 euros/MWh, the lowest price in the world at the time. After the auction is launched on June 8, interested companies will then have seven weeks to submit their application. The bidding itself will be on August 24 and 25, the minister revealed.
In January, in Parliament, Matos Fernandes set March as the date for the first renewable capacity auction of the year, an ambition halted by the Covid-19 pandemic. On March 26, in a public session to present the promoters of the solar capacity auction in Portugal – broadcast online on the Poupa Energia website, the Secretary of State for Energy admitted: “We will launch the bidding and qualification phase as soon as the market allows,” said João Galamba.
About the green hydrogen project in Sines, which was also postponed to June – after the memorandum of understanding between Portugal and the Netherlands was not signed in March, as planned – Matos Fernandes also revealed in the same interview that the government wants to launch a tender before the summer, with community funds, of 40 million euros, for renewable energy production (such as biomethane, for example).
