Lithuania To Hold First RE Auction On Sept 2, 2019

• Under its renewable energy support scheme, Lithuania plans to have first renewable energy auction in the country on September 2, 2019
• With 300 GWh of capacity up for grabs, projects selected will be eligible for feed-in-tariff premium for 12 years
• Projects with more than 500 kW capacity will have their developers covering balancing responsibility as well
• Separate quota will be kept for energy producers from other EU member states that are active in Lithuania

Lithuania plans to hold its first renewable energy auction in the country on September 2, 2019 offering a total output of 300 GWh under its new support scheme for renewables. This will be the country's first technology neutral auction after the European Commission granted approval to Lithuania's €385 million ($431.5 million) renewable state support scheme (see Lithuania Gets Go-Ahead For €385mn RE Scheme).

Some of the main features of this auction and support scheme are:

• Projects that participate in the auction proceedings will be selected based on lowest premium offered to the hourly electricity market price in the day-ahead Nordpool spot.
• Selected projects will be eligible for feed-in-tariff (FIT) premium to be granted for 12 years.
• All renewable energy producers selected under this scheme will have to cover grid connection costs.
• Plants with more than 500 kW capacity will have their developers assuming balancing responsibility.
• Energy producers from other EU member states that are active in the country will also be eligible to participate in the auctions. For such participants, the government will allocate a specific quota to compete for.

Funds will be distributed from Public Service Obligations (PSO) to the most economically advantageous projects. End consumers won't have to bear with any increase in the final price by 2021, when the incentive period for some renewable energy producers under the old support scheme will be over .

With time, state support will consistently be reduced, in order renewable energy producers slowly get used to operating under market conditions.

Lithuania aims to have 38% or 5 TWh of renewable energy share in its final gross energy consumption by 2025 under its National Energy Independence Strategy. For this, it is targeting 50% of renewable energy to come from wind power, 20% from solar, 15% from biofuel, 12% from hydropower and about 3% from biogas. This, according to the Ministry of Energy, will reduce the country's dependence on importing electricity by 30%.

Going forward, it plans a further increase in renewable energy share to 45% or 7 TWh/year by 2030 when solar energy's share is planned to increase to 22%. Finally, by 2050, Lithuania will be a 100% or 18 TWh renewable energy consuming nation.