"The auction was a success, even greater than the auction that took place about a year ago [...]. We beat a new world record, which was achieved with absolutely clear negotiations", announced the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, at a press conference today in Lisbon.
According to the ministry, the South Korean company Hanwha Q-Cells was the "big winner" of this second solar auction, which took place on August 24th and 25th.
Matos Fernandes said that with this auction, gains for consumers in the order of 559 million euros are achieved over 15 years. This value corresponds to a unit gain of about 833 thousand euros for each MW awarded (over 15 years), which represents an increase of about 80% compared to the unit gain obtained in the 2019 auction (about 464 thousand euros for each MW awarded), clarifies the ministry.
Matos Fernandes revealed that the 12 lots auctioned correspond, in fact, to 13 awards "because, for one of them, the orders corresponded, approximately, to half of their own availability", he explained. Each competing company could award a maximum of half the total auction capacity.
As for the remaining lots auctioned, the Spanish companies Iberdola and Endesa left with one each, the French Tag Energie took two lots, the German Enerland took one lot, and the Spanish Audax left with two.
Asked about the reason for not having Portuguese companies in the group companies that came away successful from the solar power auction, the Minister of the Environment stressed that Iberdrola and Endesa are "two great 'players' in Portugal", but, since it is an auction of network points and not tariffs, "a 'player' who is already in Portugal gives less value to being able to access the network than a 'player' who is not in Portugal".
In the fixed price modality, in which the lowest value in the world was reached - 11.14 euros per MWh (in the 2019 auction it was 14.76 euros per MWh, considered the lowest tariff in the world at the time) – only one lot was sold off at this auction.
Of the other lots, eight were awarded in the storage modality, the great novelty of this auction, and four in the modality of compensation to the system, explained the minister.
In the storage modality, the Government initially defined a capacity premium of 33.5 thousand euros per MW / year, but the winners were available to pay, themselves, a capacity premium to the system of approximately 37.1 thousand euros per MW / year.
Furthermore, the winners in this modality will have to "insure the system against high price events in the market".
"We are here objectively to create the conditions to reach, by 2030, 80% of our electricity being from renewable sources, and we are achieving this with enormous economic gain", concluded the Minister of the Environment.
