Brazilian renewable power auction set for Nov. 13

Brazil’s Ministry of Mining and Energy will hold an auction for electricity from renewable power plants on Nov. 13.

In the auction, wind energy and solar power projects will compete for contracts to sell power starting in November 2018, the ministry said in the official gazette Tuesday.

Developers bid down the price at which they’re willing to deliver electricity in an effort to win contracts to sell power for as long as 20 years in the government-run auctions.The Brazilian government has announced its second solar power auction, open only to photovoltaic parks, will take place on August 14.

 

Winning projects in the reserve auction will obtain 20-year power purchase contracts.

The projects are slated to start operations on August 1, 2017, but they may begin operations before that date if they are completed early, with electricity sold at the contractually agreed price.

The government has not announced exactly how much capacity will be awarded, however.

In the last national solar auction, which took place last year, about 1 GW of solar projects was awarded. Nevertheless, the government currently plans to contract only about 500 MW of solar annually through national auctions.

Projects that participate in the auction must first obtain an approval by the governmental energy planning company Empresa de Pesquisa Energética (EPE). The deadline for the submission of the projects is April 14.

This is the second national auction specifically for photovoltaic projects in Brazil and the first national auction open to photovoltaic projects this year in the country. Currently, Brazil’s installed photovoltaic capacity is of about 15 MW.