Not a single PV project was selected in Spain’s first renewable energy auction, which was held on Wednesday in Madrid, according to several statements from the local solar energy associations. The only winner in the 3 GW auction was wind power, which won all the allocated capacity.
Spanish solar association Unión Española Fotovoltaica (UNEF) said in a press release that the result of the auction shows that PV was discriminated against, and that PV projects were not given the opportunity to prove their competitiveness. UNEF also said it will appeal to the Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission against the outcome of the auction. Previously, UNEF had filed an appeal against the auction’s bidding rules with Spain’s Supreme Court.
UNEF stressed that, although bids for solar projects had the same prices of those for wind project proposals, the auction design has given advantage to wind as this technology was given priority in the event of a tie.
The association claims that, if free competition would have been a main criterium to select projects in the auction, Spanish consumers would have benefited of lower prices.
The association of PV power producer Asociación Nacional de Productores de Energía Fotovoltaica (Anpier) has also said that solar was discriminated in the auction due to its bidding rules.
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How about auction rules specifying that power has to be available at least half of all days at the hour of peak net electricity demand?
I can’t see http://www.ree.es/en/activities/realtime-demand-and-generation from here (it needs flash), but I suspect wind meets that requirement better than solar… but if they buy enough wind, then solar would start meeting it better. It’d be self-balancing.
A plausible criticism. Spain has a large and growing summer air-conditioning load that solar matches well. Were time-of-day and load matching considerations given any weight in the auction? I assume not.
The PP government in Spain still does not have a true renewables policy, let alone one for the full energy transition. It has relented from its total hostility to solar only enough to meet EU targets for renewables.