Argentina awards second tender in two months

ARGENTINA: The Ministry of Energy and Mines has awarded contracts to ten new wind farms in its latest tender to supply renewable energy to the national grid.

Argentina has contracted a further 765MW in its latest tender (pic: Genneia)

The wind projects, distributed from Argentina's central coast to Patagonia, have a total installed of capacity of 765MW - against an initial quota of 400MW - and won with bids averaging $53.34/MWh.

The prices are down from $59.39/MWh in the previous tender, which acted as the ceiling price in the current round. 

The lowest bid was made by China's Sinohydro Corporation Limited which bid $46/MWh for its 100MW Pampa wind farm in the Buenos Aires province.

Meanwhile, CP Renovables presented the highest bid of $59.40/MWh for its 48MW Achiras wind farm in the central province of Cordoba.

Other companies winning contracts included petrochemicals producer Petroquimica Comodoro Rivadavia and energy firm Genneria, while Spain's Isolux Ingenieria will build two farms.

Developers now have 120 days to sign final contracts with the authorities.

Launched after overwhelming interest from investors in the first round in October, the new round was designed to improve the geographical spread of new projects to avoid overburdening grid capacity in some areas.

The province of Buenos Aires will receive three of the eight new farms, while two each will be built in Comahue and Patagonia and three more in other parts of the country.

The ministry also awarded contracts to 20 solar projects with a total installed capacity of 516.2MW, concentrated in the west of the country.

According to Renewables Energy Secretary, Sebastian Kind, the results of the latest tender will mean that Argentina is now ahead of its legal target of deriving 8% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2018-2019.