World Bank Announces $480 Million In Loan Guarantees For Argentina Renewable Energy Projects
In a major boost to renewable energy project developers active in Argentina, the World Bank has announced loan guarantees for several upcoming projects.
The World Bank has announced loan guarantees worth $480 million for renewable energy projects under Argentina’s RenovAr program. The government has auctioned 59 renewable energy projects under the RenovAr program so far. Of these, 27 projects had asked for guarantees from the World Bank.
The projects likely to receive loan guarantees will include 10 solar projects with 306 megawatts of capacity, 12 wind energy projects of 712 megawatts, four hydro power projects of 4 megawatts, and one biogas project of 1 megawatt capacity.
Argentina received a massive response for its first renewable energy auction. A total of 1,000 megawatts in capacity was scheduled to be allocated during the auction. Prospective developers, however, submitted bids to develop 6,366 megawatts of capacity.
A total of 123 bids were submitted by the interested developers under the first round of the Argentina’s renewable energy auction. Out of total 123 bids, 49 bids with a combined capacity of 3,468 MW were submitted by wind project developers, 58 bids for 2,834 MW capacity by solar project developers, and the balance of bids submitted by bioenergy and small hydro developers.
Developers will have signed 20-year long-term power purchase contracts to sell power from proposed power projects. The projects are scheduled to be completed within two years from the auction.
The government has set a target to increase the share of renewable energy to 20% in the energy mix by 2025. Another target called for 8% renewable energy share in electricity consumption by 2017. As a result, several renewable energy auctions are expected to take place in the country over the next few years. The government is expected to auction 10 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2025.
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