Spain to support distributed PV deployment in upcoming renewables auction

• Spain will allocate up to 140MW of dispersed solar PV capacity in the country's following renewables auction, readied to happen this April.

The procurement round is for a total amount of 500MW of renewables capacity, with 200MW for concentrated solar power, 140MW for biomass and also 20MW for various other modern technologies.

Distributed PV projects with a capacity of 5MW or reduced will certainly be allowed to participate in the auction, with winning bidders needed to complete the plants within two years. They will certainly then receive a 12-year power purchase agreement.

Spain's ministry of eco-friendly transition stated the benefits of distributed PV plants include their decreased requirement for network infrastructure as well as their ability to help democratise the country's electricity system.

The auction is readied to happen on 6 April, so that business as well as neighborhood entities interested in taking part have time to offer their projects.

For the CSP sector, projects should contend least 6 hrs of energy storage as well as have the possibility of being hybridised with solar PV, biomass or biogas.

Dispersed PV was also supported in Spain's latest renewables auction, which occurred in October. While 300MW of dispersed PV was designated, just 6MW was awarded, with Spain's National Association of Photovoltaic Energy Producers (ANPIER) flagging as it was hard for smaller individuals to take on larger gamers that had the ability to benefit from economic situations of scale.

October's auction alloted an overall of 866MW of solar capacity as well as 2,258 MW of wind. Although 600MW of capacity was scheduled for solar or wind plants that were required to be functional by the end of September 2022 as part of efforts to speed up implementation, only 22MW was awarded because sector.

April's auction will certainly be Spain's 3rd under a framework presented in 2020 that aims to sustain the release of a minimum of 10GW of solar PV by the end of 2025. The very first procurement round under the mechanism occurred last January and also closed with solar prospective buyers securing 2,036 MW of capacity.

Spain deployed 3.8 GW of solar last year, according to numbers from profession body SolarPower Europe, which describes the nation as "probably the world's biggest market for subsidy-free solar".