Spain Announces 4th Round Of RE Auction For 1.8GW Of Solar Capacity

Spain has scheduled its fourth renewable energy auction round for November 22. The sale will feature 1.8GW of solar capacity to hasten the country’s power system’s decarbonization. Nearly 3GW of solar capacity was won in the first two previous auctions for solar and wind energy, held in 2021.

The Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO) has said that for this most recent round, it will approve the augmentation or hybridization of existing installations.

Additionally, if some of the assigned capacity for solar PV (1.8GW of solar) or wind (1.5GW) is not fully utilised, the capacity may be switched to the alternative technology.

Spain will hold its fourth auction at this time. The first one took place in January 2021 and was awarded more than 2GW of solar capacity, while the second one took place in October 2021 and gave just 866MW of solar capacity.

A procurement round for 520 MW of renewable power, including 140 MW for distributed solar, will be held for the third auction, which was originally scheduled for this April, but will now be held on October 25.

The announcement was made in conjunction with several steps Spain will take to reduce its gas consumption by up to 5% in the coming months, by the European Union’s pledge to accelerate renewable energy in what may turn out to be a record-breaking year for solar deployment in Europe with 40GW forecast.

To pay for measures to assist Spaniards with their skyrocketing inflation, the Spanish government announced earlier this year that it will impose a windfall tax on banks and power firms beginning in 2019.

MITECO also disclosed the opening of a public proposal intended to hasten the implementation of energy storage systems integrated with renewable energy projects.

A windfall tax on electricity companies and financial institutions will undoubtedly be implemented by the Spanish government starting in 2019 to help pay for initiatives aimed at assisting Spaniards with their growing cost of living. This was announced earlier this year.

A public proposal designed to hasten the delivery of energy storage systems integrated with renewable energy projects was also launched, according to MITECO, which was also disclosed.