El Salvador just launched an auction to procure 28 MW of renewable energy. Eligible projects will include solar PV – ground-mounted and rooftop – up to 2 MW in size and biogas projects not to exceed 1 MW. Consejo Nacional de Energía (CNE), El Salvador’s energy regulator, is the authority managing the auction, and expects the auction will raise investment of $58 million. CNE expects to assign 20 PV and 8 biogas projects, granting 15-year PPA’s to all of them. Commercial operations must start between 2020 and 2021, and sell electricity to local power distributor Delsur.
This will be the third auction for El Salvador. It’s second auction in 2017 had CNE awarding 119 MW (DC) of solar energy and 70 MW of wind as four solar projects were selected. Two of the solar projects – each 50 MW in size – are selling power at $49.55/MWh and $49.65/MWh. The CNE also selected a 10 MW project selling power at $67.24/MWh, and a 9.9 MW facility offering $54.98/MWh. The country’s first auction, in 2014, brought online 96 MW of solar PV. Of this power, about 75 MW comes from the 101 MW Solar Providencia project – in the department of La Paz, 40km from the capital San Salvador – which began operating on April 1, 2017.
