The Argentine government had kicked off preparations for the first-ever renewable energy scheduled for later this year.
According to media reports, draft specifications for the auction of 1 GW renewable energy capacity shall be released by the Argentine government next month which will then be opened for comments and suggestions from the stakeholders. The final auction is expected to take place in September this year.
Argentine Minister of Mines and Energy Juan José Aranguren had recently stated that projects based on solar, wind, biomass and small hydro power technologies will be auctioned with project sizes varying between 10 MW and 40 MW. The minister expects wind energy projects to dominate the auction.
The Law of Renewable Energies passed by Argentina in 2015 called 20% share of renewable energy in the energy mix by 2025. The law also mandates 8% renewable energy share in electricity consumption by 2017. At present, the share of renewable energy in electricity consumption is only 1.8%.
Earlier this year, Argentina also approved a separate law that calls for auctions in order to achieve of 10 GW renewable energy capacity which may help meet the ’20% by 2025’ target.
According to reports, Argentina is also in talks with the World Bank to provide investment guarantees for the planned renewable energy projects. The 1 GW auction is expected to attract $2 billion investments while an additional 3 GW capacity planned to be auction over the next 2 years would bring in $5 billion investment.
Around 43% of Argentina’s total greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the energy sector. The country submitted to the United Nations a proposal to cut emissions by 15% compared to business-as-usual scenario by 2030. This target can be increased to 30% reduction with international support.
