Spanish Renewables Tender for CSP, Biomass to be Out in April

The Spanish government will release its next renewable energy tender in April 2022 to award 500 MW to mostly solar and biomass-based projects, the ministry for the ecological transition has announced.

The ministry put the proposal for the auction terms to public consultation until January 21. The plan is to hold the event on April 6. Of the total capacity, 200 MW will be assigned to concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, 140 MW to distributed solar PV, 140 MW to biomass energy and 20 MW is reserved for any technology with no restrictions.

Projects in the distributed solar PV category have to be below or equal to 5 MW. The ministry said the auction process will take into account their proximity to population and citizen and SME participation. The goal is to ensure these type of projects have a “strong local character”, in the ministry’s words.

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For bidders interested in biomass-based projects, the Spanish ministry set aside 100 MW for large installations and 40 MW for plants under 20 MW in its upcoming tender.

The regulatory support will again take the form of the pay-as-bid remuneration model, which the Spanish government introduced a year ago to replace generous feed-in-tariffs. CSP plants, biogas and biomass-fired installations in this auction round will receive regulatory support for 20 years, whereas solar PV and other renewables can count of 12 years of support. All plants will retain some exposure to the market but in different measure.

Winning solar PV projects will have to be constructed within two years from the award, while others have a deadline of four years, the ministry added.

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The Spanish National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) has set a target of more than 50 gigawatts of wind power to be installed in the country by 2030. Solar PV ranks as the second technology with the largest capacity target for 2030, with almost 39.2 megawatts. The country also subscribes to 2050 objectives of national climate neutrality, 100% renewable energy in the electricity mix, and 97% renewable energy in the total energy mix.