Argentina received firm bids averaging $47.64/MWh for wind projects and $48.67/MWh for solar PV projects in Round 2.0 of its RenovAr renewable energy tendering programme.

The prices were around 17% below the average price registered at 2016's Round 1.5 tender and the cap prices set for this round, which were close to last year’s average.

Wind power was more competitive than PV, with lowest prices offered reaching $37.3/MWh and $40.44/MWh respectively.

A total of 58 wind projects with a combined capacity of 3.5GW and 74 solar PV projects totalling 3.8GW put forward qualified bids, the government said.

This is more than seven times the 550MW of wind and 450MW of PV that the government wanted to contract via this tender. An initial total of 3.8GW of wind and 5.3GW of solar PV projects had been short-listed for the tender, but the balance was technically and commercially disqualified by the government.

With 20-year, US dollar-indexed PPAs due to kick-in over the next two to three years, Argentina continues to attract interest from major global players for the RenovAr programme, which aims to help it reach 20% of non-large-hydro energy supply by 2025.

On 29 November the Argentine government will announce the final winners and how much power will be contracted after analysing the so-called administrative offers.

Since the start of the RenovAr tenders last year, Argentina has contracted about 1.4GW of wind and 1GW of solar, plus a much smaller amount of biomass, waste-to-energy and small hydro projects.

In this year’s tender, after raising prices and improving conditions for biomass, waste-to-energy and small hydro, the government received 65 bids totalling 273MW from these technologies.

Argentina's tender comes hot on the heels of Mexico's latest clean-energy round, which saw record-low prices for wind and PV, reaching as low as $17.70/MWh and $19/MWh respectively.