Argentina

The publication of the law in Argentina’s Official Journal marks the entry into force of the new rules for the distributed generation of renewable energy sources under net metering.

The developers of the five newly selected PV projects, which were initially excluded from the round, have agreed to reduce their prices to the levels of those selected in late November. The additional solar capacity has raised the total assigned power for PV up to 816.3 MW.

Under the new rules, which are expected to come into force in the first quarter of 2018, owners of residential and commercial PV systems will be allowed to sell excess power to the grid under a net metering mechanism.

The lowest bid among the selected solar projects was confirmed at US$40.44/MWh. The average price of all the 66 qualified offers for PV was $43.5/MWh.

The average price of all solar bids in Argentina’s third renewable energy auction was US$48.9/MWh. The successful bidders will be announced next week.

PV will compete with 3.8 GW of wind and a few hundreds of megawatts of less established renewable energy sources.

The 300 MW solar park, which consists of the three 100 MW Cauchari projects – 1, 2 and 3 – is being developed by local government-run company Jemse SE.

Argentina’s Ministry of Energy and Mines has published new standards for local PV production, mere days before it plans to announce the winners of the second round of its RenovAr auction program for renewables.

The announcement was given by the country’s energy minister, Juan José Aranguren, during a conference, according to local newspaper Clarín.

The Argentinean province of Jujuy has issued a $210 million green bond which will co-finance a 300 MW solar project selected in the first round of the country’s program for large-scale renewables RenovAr.