- Argentina has completed its RenMDI renewable energy auction round selecting 98 projects
- As against 620 MW offered, it selected 633.7 MW including 501.1 MW solar PV capacity in the form of 44 projects
- Winners will enter into 15-year PPAs with national wholesale electricity market operator Cammesa
Around 6 months after launching a competitive auction process to contract 620 MW renewable energy capacity, Argentina’s Ministry of Energy has finally awarded 633.7 MW capacity, including 501.1 MW solar PV in the form of 44 parks.
Remaining capacity was distributed as a 10 MW wind farm, a 3 MW biomass project, 29.9 MW biogas plants, 39 MW biomass plants, 13.2 MW urban solid waste plants and 37.5 MW small hydroelectric plants (PAH).
Solar power plants will be spread across the provinces of Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Córdoba, Corrientes, Formosa, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, San Juan, Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero. The list of winning solar PV projects is available on the ministry’s website.
All 98 winning projects will now enter into electricity supply contracts with the country’s wholesale electricity market operator Cammesa for 15-year duration.
Argentina seeks to have renewable energy covering 20% of local energy demand by 2025. To help with this aim, the RenMDI tender round was launched in February 2023, after completing round 3 of the country’s flagship RenovAR program (see Argentina Launches 620 MW Renewable Energy Tender).
Recently, the country’s National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) said the country added 291 MW new renewable energy capacity in Q2/2023 including 154.4 MW PV taking the national total PV capacity at the end of 2022 to 1.1 GW (see Latin America PV News Snippets).
In June 2023, the Energy Ministry said it will invest $400 million out of a $900 million World Bank loan on the development of clean energy in vulnerable homes and communities. Efforts will include installation of PV systems for homes and public institutions, PV mini-grids, solar herds, among others to help it achieve 1 GW distributed generation capacity target by 2030 and improve access to electricity throughout the nation.
