The second auction in Portugal to build and operate solar energy capacity ended on Wednesday with Hanwha Q Cells, from South Korea, winning half of the lots, beating strong competition from European companies, the Government announced.
According to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action (MAAC), Hanwha Q Cells won six of the 12 lots tendered, in a total of 315 Megawatts (MW) from a total 670 MW licensed.
Swiss company Audax won two lots, while Iberdrola, that had taken the most lots in the first solar energy auction, won another lot. Other lots were licensed to TAG Energy (2) and Endesa.
Founded in April 2011, Hanwha aims to become a global leader in the downstream solar market, delivering integrated solar power plant solutions encompassing development, construction, and operation.
In 2013, the company signed an agreement to build a large-scale 18MW solar power plant in Lisbon and Setubal, Portugal, where 74,000 modules were installed on an area of 1,110 square kilometers, the size of 155 soccer fields.
Portugal has a target of reaching 80% of electricity production from renewable sources in 2030, both to reduce fuel imports and pollution.
Environment Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes said on Wednesday that the auction of contracts for new solar energy capacity set a world record for the lowest price of future output.
One of the winning bids was for output costing as little as 11.14 euros per megawatt hour (Mwh). That compares with a then-record minimum price per Mwh of 14.6 euros in Portugal’s first mega auction of 1,150 MW of solar energy capacity in June last year.
Based on the locations where solar plants will be installed, auctions were held where the winners would be those offering the highest discounts to the bidding tariff of around 41 euros MWh.
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