Small-Scale Projects Auctions Keeps Renewable Sector Alive in Argentina, an Industrial Info Market Brief

The change in Argentina's national government in late 2015 started a boom of renewable energy projects, mainly boosted by long-term power-purchase agreement (PPA) auctions, RenovAr 1.0, RenovAr 1.5 and RenovAr 2.0, which were held in 2016 and 2017. Combined, the three auctions resulted in contracts for 147 projects with a total capacity of 4,466.5 megawatts (MW).

However, the combined impact of high capital costs, the depreciation of the Argentinian peso against the U.S. dollar and a tight fiscal policy program forced the government to postpone the call for the RenovAr 3.0 auction and reformulate it as a new one called RenovAr MinRen. Launched in November 2018 the new auction is expected to result in PPA contracts totaling 400 MW from small-scale solar, wind, hydro, biomass, biogas and landfill projects with planned capacity between 0.5 MW and 10 MW. Similarly, Empresa Provincial de la Energia de Santa Fe (EPE), the public utility of Santa Fe province (the third most populated in the country), has released a 20-year PPA auction for 50 MW from eight 5-MW solar photovoltaic projects and one 10-MW wind project. See graph below.