Luxembourg launches 40 MW solar procurement

Luxembourg’s minister of energy, Claude Turmes, has launched a tender for the development of 40 MW of solar power generation capacity.

The procurement is divided into five lots. There are 10 MW slices of capacity available for solar arrays on industrial sites and for two sizes of rooftop capacity and two 5 MW, capacity-determined sections of the tender devoted to PV systems on parking lots and water basins.

The lowest solar electricity price ceiling, of €89/MWh (€0.089/kWh), will be set for industrial locations with a generation capacity of 500 kW-5 MW. Non-industrial site rooftop installations with the same capacity will have a maximum power price of €115/MWh and developers of smaller systems (200-500 kW) can bid a maximum €120/MWh for the power generated.

A tariff of €140/MWh will be available for facilities with a rating of 500 kW-5 MW sited on parking lots and water basins and smaller systems on such sites (200-500 kW) can bid up to €145.

Deadline

Developers have until March 16 to submit bids.

With an installed solar generation capacity of 134 MW at the end of 2018, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, Luxembourg wants to boost the sector, especially to meet transport needs which account for around 60% of the energy consumption of the grand duchy, thus “putting the climate objective at risk”, according to the government.

The authorities put in place incentives for small solar installations at the beginning of the year. In May, the government raised feed-in tariffs for small PV systems.

Renewables met around 8% of Luxembourg’s power needs last year. The European micro state’s goal is to raise that figure to 11% next year. In May 2017, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure presented an energy strategy aimed at increasing solar capacity to 2.5 GW, and that of renewables overall to 4.8 GW, by 2050.