Spanish utility Iberdrola has been awarded 83MW of power capacity, with 14MW of storage, in Portugal’s latest solar auction which saw a total of 670MW awarded at prices as low as a record €11.14/MWh ($13.12/MWh).
Portugal’s Ministry of Environment had made some 700MW available for auction, out of which 670MW was awarded. South Korea’s solar panel manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells won half of the 12 lots, or a total of 315MW.
In addition to Iberdrola and Hanwha the ministry’s list of winning bids – a copy of which has been seen by Recharge – includes Green Show, Endesa, Solarengoradar, and Tag Energy. According to the document Solarengoradar, about which no more details are known, made the record-low €11.14/MWh bid.
The ultra-low bid trumps the €14.76/MWh record low set in Portugal’s first solar auction last year. It also outstrips the a 2GW PV development in Abu Dhabi to be built by France’s EDF and China’s JinkoSolar which will produce at $13.50/MWh.
Iberdrola’s hybrid photovoltaic-plus-storage project is to be built in the Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost region. The project will increase the utility’s Portuguese portfolio to 1.52GW of renewable energy capacity, including 1.16GW of hydropower, 255MW of solar, 14MW of battery storage and 92MW of wind power.
The utility is also progressing development of 172MW of solar capacity in the Algarve and Tagus Valley regions which it was awarded in August 2019.
