In Spain's latest renewable energy bidding held in April this year, Spain plans to allocate up to 140MW of distributed solar photovoltaic capacity.

The total renewable energy purchased in this round is 500MW, including 200MW for centralized solar power generation, 140MW for biomass energy and 20MW for other types of technologies.

Distributed photovoltaic projects of 5MW or less will be allowed to participate in the bidding. The successful bidder needs to complete the power plant within two years, after which they will obtain a 12-year power purchase agreement.

According to the Spanish Ministry of ecological transformation, the benefits of distributed photovoltaic power plants include reducing the demand for network infrastructure and helping to democratize the national power system.

Distributed photovoltaic projects of 5MW or less will be allowed to participate in bidding

The bidding is scheduled to be held on April 6, which allows time for interested companies and local institutions to introduce the project.

For the concentrated photothermal (CSP) part, the project must have at least 6 hours of energy storage and may be mixed with solar photovoltaic, biomass energy or biogas.

Distributed PV also received support in the recent renewable energy bidding in Spain, which was held in October 2021. Although 300MW distributed photovoltaic is allocated in this bidding, the scalar is only 6MW. At that time, the Spanish National Association of photovoltaic energy producers (anpier) pointed out that it was difficult for small participants to compete with large enterprises that could benefit from economies of scale.

A total of 866mw solar energy and 2258mw wind energy were allocated in the bidding in October. In order to accelerate the development, 600MW capacity is reserved for solar power plants or wind power plants that need to be put into operation before the end of September 2022. However, the medium scalar of this part is only 22mw.

In 2020, Spain proposed a framework to support the development of at least 10GW solar photovoltaic by the end of 2025. The bidding in April was the third bidding held by Spain under this framework. The first round of procurement under this mechanism was held in January last year, and the solar bidder won the bid of 2036mw.

Spain developed 3.8gw of solar energy last year, according to solarpower Europe, a trade agency, which described Spain as "possibly the world's largest non subsidized solar market."