A large registration turnout by wind energy project investors for a RES auction to take place December 12 has prompted authorities to consider increasing the session’s wind energy capacity offer by 100 MW for a total of 325 MW.

The upcoming RES auction’s wind energy participants have already covered a quota requiring capacity registrations to exceed amounts on offer at each session by 40 percent if full quantities are to be auctioned. This rule has been adopted to ensure bidding competition.

Investors behind 16 wind energy projects have submitted applications representing a total capacity of 491 MW. In the solar energy category, 44 projects total 148 MW.

RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, initially set the session’s offer at 225 MW for wind energy parks with production capacities of up to 50 MW and 287 MW for solar projects with capacities of up to 20 MW.

Despite the considerable investor interest expressed for wind energy capacity, a decision to increase the auction’s capacity on offer will not be easy to make as administrative revisions are required.

The energy ministry, recently given the authority to determine RES auction capacity amounts, would need to deliver a ministerial decision resetting the quantity to be auctioned.