Under its first renewable energy auction, Colombia has contracted 1,298 MW capacity in the form of five wind power projects and three solar PV plants. Names of the winning companies or individual technology capacities weren't revealed.
The National Energy Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME) under the Ministry of Mines and Energy informed that the auction received a weighted average winning tariff of COP 95.65 ($0.028) per kWh, which is about COP 50 ($0.015) less than the current average cost of generation in bilateral contracts.
The ministry had been targeting to procure 12,050.5 MWh of clean power a day, and finally awarded 10,186 MWh a day through the auction. Winners will sign 15-year power purchase agreements (PPA) with the generators.
These winning projects once online in 2022 will help increasing the country's installed renewable energy capacity from less than 50 MW now to over 2.2 GW. Reuters reported Colombian President Ivan Duque's office said the auction has brought in an investment of about $2.2 billion.
"This is the beginning of a revolution because it allows us to diversify our electrical matrix, the which is very clean because 70% comes from water sources but at the same time makes us vulnerable to climate variability and moments of scarcity like the El Niño phenomenon," said Minister of Energy Maria Fernanda Suarez.
First cancelled in February 2019, the renewable energy auction of Colombia received 53 bids from 27 companies with several international names in the fray (see 27 Companies Express Interest In Colombian RE Auction).
Latin America is contemplating to fix 70% renewable energy target for the region by 2030, as revealed by the Colombian Energy Minister for which Suarez claimed nine countries including Colombia are on board (see Latin America Proposes 312 GW RE By 2030).
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