Serbia Holds Maiden Auction for Renewable Energy

Serbia recently conducted its maiden auction for renewable energy, for which, several bidders emerged successful.

The tender witnessed 16 bids from wind and solar developers. Together, they bid for an aggregate capacity of 816 MW. Of this, 11 were valid boasting of capacity worth 739 MW.

For the tender for wind energy, a quota of 400 MW was reached by four projects. This also entailed a bid from Israel-headquartered Enlight.

As far as the solar tender is concerned, the quota of 50 MW could not be achieved. However, three developments won support contracts via a contract for difference for a period of 15 years.

While for wind, the lowest tariff was €64.48/MWh, for solar, it stood at €88.65/MWh.

The auction was held after a EBRD-led (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) technical cooperation project with the Ministry of Mining and Energy. It was supported by the government of Switzerland by way of a grant from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Bank guarantees and cash deposits exceeding €18m were submitted by interested firms. This reaffirms their intent towards execution of the projects.

The results of the auction, however, are in preliminary stage and will be confirmed in the following one to two weeks.

The next auction is slated for 2024 with a quota of 300 MW.