Investor appeals seeking reappraisals of their rejected registration applications concerning upcoming RES auctions on July 2 have produced just minor changes on the list of qualifiers.

Investors representing 155 projects with a total capacity of 93.66 MW will take part in the auction’s category for small-scale photovoltaic installations of less than one MW.

A total of 22 projects totaling 11.88 MW were rejected from 177 applications submitted with a 105.5 MW overall capacity. Prior to the appeals – unsuccessful applicants were  were given a few days – applications for 149 projects totaling 91.6 MW had been  approved.

Given a RAE (Regulatory Authority for Energy) term applied to ensure heightened bidding competition at the auctions – it requires endorsed applications to exceed  amounts to be auctioned by at least 75 percent – a total of 53.52 MW will be offered in this category.

Investors representing just 13 projects with a total capacity of 93.44 MW have qualified to take part in a second PV sub-category for bigger projects measuring between one and 20 MW.  A total of 21 projects with an overall capacity of 103.77 MW were eliminated. A total of 34 applications totaling 197 MW were originally submitted, while just 8 had been approved prior to the investor appeals. Taking into account RAE’s aforementioned auction competition-related conditions, 53.40 MW will be auctioned off in this sub-category.

As for the third category, concerning wind energy installations of between 3 and 50 MW, all 14 applications originally submitted, totaling 308 MW, were approved. RAE’s auction competition rule will reduce the amount to be auctioned to 176.39 MW.

Subsequently, a total of 106.92 MW and 176.39 MW will be auctioned in the PV and wind energy sub-sectors, respectively, for a grand total of 283.31 MW. This is less than half the 600 MW (300 MW for wind energy projects and 300 MW for PV projects) announced by RAE for 2018, not including a separate combined auction.

The subdued figures have troubled RES renewable energy market officials, who have already called for changes to the auction rules and licensing procedure.

“It is clear, regardless of the auction developments, that rules and procedures need to be changed if we truly want fast and robust renewable energy sector growth in our country,” SEF/HELAPCO, the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies, announced in a statement.