Bogdan Tudorache

Renewable energy auctions continue to raise competitive prices for renewable energy on markets around the world, notes IRENA’s “Renewable energy auctions: Status and trends beyond price” study, which presents the latest auction research, focusing on developments in market in the period 2017-2018.

The most widely offered technologies were those for solar and wind power, accounting for 97% of the total volume of auctions in more than 50 countries in 2017 and 2018. In the mentioned period, an estimated total volume of 97.5 GW of electricity were auctioned, solar and wind energy onshore accounting for more than half and, respectively, one third of transactions.

Nearly half of the bidders were newcomers, mainly from countries in Africa, which have plenty of solar resources, benefitting also from declining technology costs, or resource-rich Central and West Asian countries, which have a lot of solar and wind.

Thus, technologies for the production of energy from wind energy sources are the most auctioned for, and global prices for energy from photovoltaic sources have continued the downward trend, although at a slower pace, the study cited by CNR-CME shows.

At the same time, onshore wind power was slightly higher in 2018, compared to the previous year.