Spain To Hold 3.3GW Renewable Energy Auction in November

Spain plans to hold a 3.3GW renewable energy auction in November to allocate 1.8GW solar energy and 1.5GW wind power. The successful PV project will obtain a 12-year power purchase agreement (PPA) and must be completed within two years.

On October 19, 2021, Spain held the second round of renewable energy auction in 2021. The uncertainty of policy and the surge of raw material cost led to an increase of 29% in the average price of PV auction a decrease of 57% in the auction volume compared with the first round. The soaring electricity price has become the driving force for the development of rooftop PV in Spain. In addition, in order to cope with the Ukraine war, the Spanish government introduced a series of measures in April 2022 to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, curb energy prices, and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy.

In recent years, Spanish solar market has been gradually matured. The newly installed capacity in 2021 was 4.9GW, which is the highest in history. The installed capacity in the past three years exceeded 13GW. The main driver for the growth of solar energy in Spain is ground-mounted power plants and self-consumption PV. The self-consumption PV roadmap approved in December 2021 promotes the further development of the Spanish self-consumption market. It is estimated that the self-consumption potential in 2030 will be 9-14GW. In addition, as the largest PPA market in Europe, all large-scale solar power capacity from 2020 (2.9GW) to 2021 (3.4GW) are developed through PPA’s or commercial projects without any type of public assistance or regulatory plan. We expect that the new PV installed capacity in Spain will reach 4.5GW in 2022.