The largest renewable energy auction in Poland in 2020 had Polish Energy Regulatory Office or URE awarding 1.7 GW of solar PV and wind energy capacity, selected as 800 MW of PV and 900 MW of new wind farms.
The auction was concluded on November 26, 2020 for new installations with a minimum capacity of 1 MW or above for both the renewable energy technologies. URE said it received 97 companies submitting 127 bids in total comprising 64 bids for wind farms and 63 bids for PV installations.
It finally selected 96 bids submitted by 70 producers adding up to 42 TWh of clean energy worth PLN 9.4 billion ($2.58 billion). The lowest winning bid came in at PLN 190.00 ($52.00) per MWh while the highest winning bid was PLN 249.90 ($68.39) per MWh. Solar PV projects selected have 24 months to come online and start selling contracted electricity. For wind installations, the time period is 33 months.
EDP Renewables separately announced winning 15-year Contract-for-Difference (Cfd) for 5 wind and solar energy projects with a total capacity of 220 MW. These will become operational in 2022 and 2023, said EDPR.
Details of the winners and winning projects can be viewed on URE's website.
Commenting on the results, URE stated, "The results of the seventh out of eight auctions this year show the gradual exhaustion of relatively cheap wind projects, which are being replaced by intensively developing photovoltaic installations."
In 2019 auctions, URE said it auctioned close to 78 TWh clean energy worth more than PLN 16.2 billion in the form of 101 bids. The lowest and highest winning tariffs in this auction reached PLN 162.83 per MWh and PLN 233.29 per MWh, respectively.