The Portuguese government brought down the capacity of its planned solar auction to 1.35 GW to be held in summer 2019. This was announced by the country's Minister of Environment and Energy Transition Joao Matos Fernandes after the council of ministers relaxed licensing norms for the same.
Media reports referred to an online statement released by the minister to report the development saying the government expects an investment of €6 billion ($6.69 billion) in solar energy till 2030 towards its goal of generating 80% of its energy mix by renewables by 2030.
As per the details shared, the auction system was approved to be the choice of process to build solar power capacity. Auctions will be held for large-scale projects with feed-in-premium tariffs and also for rooftop solar projects to be contracted on a fixed rate. Project capacities will have the municipalities of Portalegre, Estremoz and Castelo Branco as providing main points for grid connections.
Earlier this year, Reuters reported Portugal planned to schedule its first large-scale solar power auction in June or July 2019 with 1.75 GW capacity on offer. Bidding guidelines were to be released in March or April 2019 (see Portugal Solar Auction For 1.75 GW Capacity).
According to SolarPower Europe's 2019 Global Market Outlook Portugal is expected to add new solar PV capacity between 2.1 GW in its Low Scenario and 9.7 GW in its High Scenario in the years from 2019 to 2023, rising from 660 MW installed by the end of 2018 (see SolarPower Europe: 800 GW New PV By 2023).
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