Wind falters in first Greek joint tender

Greek developers are warming up for a tender for up to 300MW of wind capacity, following disappointing results for wind in the country's first joint tender with solar in mid-April.

Terna Energy was the only successful wind bidder in Greece's first joint wind-solar tender

Companies have until the end of May to submit tenders for the wind auction, which will be held on 2 July. It will be run alongside a separate tender for 300MW of solar PV capacity.

A ceiling price of €69.18/MWh has been set for wind projects, while solar PV sites have a €69.26/MWh cap.

This new tender comes days after only one 66.6MW wind project, by Greek firm Terna Energy, was awarded a 20-year contract at a price of €60/MWh in the 15 April inaugural joint wind-solar tender.

The single successful wind bid was above the €57.03/MWh weighted average of the whole tender.

The remaining 377.78MW of capacity was secured by solar PV projects, with prices ranging from €53/MWh to the auction ceiling price of €64.72/MWh.

Terna’s price was a notch above the weighted average of €58.58/MWh that nine wind projects with combined capacity of 159.65MW were awarded in Greece’s previous wind-specific auction last December.

The price was below the €69.53/MWh average from the July 2018 wind tender.

Even before the auction results came out, the Hellenic Wind Energy Association (HWEA) had asked authorities to consider the feasibility of joint auctions in the coming years.

"Wind and photovoltaic investments face very different challenges and have wide variations in terms of conditions of licensing and development," HWEA said.

However, Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) called the joint wind-solar auction a "great success" and has said a second combined wind-solar auction for 500MW in capacity will be held in 2020.

Another wind-specific auction for at least 100MW is also expected to be held at the end of 2019.

In the meantime, HWEA has also lamented a shortage of mature wind projects and called on regulators to simplify permitting procedures for wind investments and take measures to comply with licensing deadlines.

The lack of mature projects doesn’t bode well for the 2 July tender. "We do not expect there to be oversubscription, but let us wait and see," said HWEA chief executive Panagiotis Papastamatiou.