Argentina calls tenders for 620 MW of blended renewables, storage space

• Argentina's government last week launched a renewable resource auction, RenMDI, seeking 620 MW from different innovations to diversify the nation's power mix as well as change expensive forced generation, usually provided by thermal as well as hydroelectric plants.

The auction is available in reaction to the call for expressions of interests, or MDIs for their Spanish acronym, that the Argentine energy secretariat issued in May 2022 and which saw it get 491 project proposals for a series of renewables.

These proposals were assessed for their influence on the grid, prices as well as the capability to displace thermal generation, with smaller scale projects found to be an appropriate service, the energy secretariat stated.

The RenMDI auction will certainly be focused on two goals: replacing compelled generation with 500 MW of biomass power, solar PV with or without power storage and also wind power with storage space, and also expanding the power mix by incorporating 120 MW well worth of biomass, biogas from organic sources, biogas from landfill sources and also small hydro.

Projects in the 500-MW team can range from 3 MW to 20 MW, and also are restricted to 6 particular regions. Projects in the second team, the power mix diversity, can be between 0.5 MW as well as 20 MW and situated throughout Argentina.

The energy secretariat set the ceiling prices as follows: USD 115 (EUR 107.02) per MWh for wind power with storage, USD 146/MWh for biomass-based power, USD 190/MWh for organic biogas, USD 160/MWh for landfill biogas and USD 130/MWh for small hydro.

The prices for solar with storage space and solar without storage are set based on the region. The greatest cap for solar without storage space is USD 105/MWh for projects located in the four provinces in the northeast (NEA) region. The most affordable is USD 75/MWh for projects in northwest (NOA) provinces. In between is the Buenos Aires region, where the solar is topped at USD 90/MWh.

For solar-plus-storage, the highest cap is USD 142/MWh in the NEA area and also the lowest is USD 102/MWh in the NOA region.

Picked projects from both groups will certainly be entitled to 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) denominated in US dollars.