Floating PV as well as land close to freeways to be included in Portugal's 2021 solar public auction procedure

• Great deals for PV projects on dams as well as close to motorways are set to be included in Portugal's third solar tender, the nation's state assistant for energy, João Galamba, has said.

Speaking at the Large Scale Solar Europe Virtual Summit, organised by PV Tech publisher Solar Media, Galamba announced that the Portuguese government is preparing an auction for "non-conventional" surfaces next year as the country seeks to increase its installed PV capability to get to 9GW by 2030.

Researches are underway to evaluate the potential ability as well as location for setting up floating solar parks at reservoirs beside dams, while the federal government is consulting with Portuguese motorway companies to discover the addition of projects together with freeways.

The thinking behind the brand-new version, according to Galamba, is that Portugal's eco-friendly energy objectives-- which include a goal of a minimum of 80% or more renewables in the country's system by 2030-- will be "quite requiring in terms of land accessibility", regardless of the quantity of vacuum in the south. "We want to check out other opportunities of extra and less expensive surfaces that can be that be made use of to instal solar PV," he claimed.

The brand-new system is additionally set to reduce potential land accessibility risks that might have been a problem in previous solar tenders, with programmers entrusted with searching for ideal sites. "If we transfer to these type of auctions with non-conventional surfaces, land as well as surface area will certainly be different, due to the fact that they will be predesignated, as well as not something for the promoter to discover, rent or acquire," Galamba added.

These propositions comply with Portugal's 2 previous solar auctions-- one in 2019 in which 1,292 MW was granted and one more this year which alloted 670MW-- both of which concluded with record-low prices.

With the lowest proposal at last year's PV tender can be found in at EUR14.76/ MWh, Galamba said concerns have because been raised about whether the results "were as well good, whether the rates were as well reduced and also whether the projects were possible". Nonetheless, he exposed that all projects that won batches are going ahead as prepared, with the set that saw the most affordable cost all set to start building and construction in the initial quarter of 2021 as it nears the end of the licensing stage.

" The success of an auction, obviously, is not the end of the auctioning stage, but when all the projects that won are built; that's what we think about success as well as the bright side is that it resembles we are heading that way," stated Galamba.

The primary difference in between the two previous public auctions was the intro of a storage space element this year, with eight of the 12 sets granted to solar-plus-storage projects. The record low quote was EUR11.14/ MWh for a 10MW whole lot.

" For us, the wonderful outcome of this year's auction was the storage space alternative. It surprised us rather a great deal the outcomes because we started with a reference rate of around EUR33,000 per megawatt," Galamba stated. While the system wanted to pay the marketers of these projects, the auctioning was so affordable that the contrary took place. "Instead of the system paying a set price to projects with storage, it is projects with storage that not only will insure the system versus price spikes, yet it will certainly also pay a set amount each year to the system."

In a transfer to make certain a quick licensing procedure, Portugal has set up a specialized task force for each public auction and is working to further boost procedures. Galamba said: "We want to guarantee that Portugal has the resources but primarily has the conditions to become a very appealing nation for everyone that wishes to invest in renewables and particularly in solar."