Italian energy agency Gestore dei Servizi Energetici (GSE) announced in late December last year that it will hold its eighth round of renewable energy auctions on this January 31. The story was first reported by other renewable energy news websites. GSE is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. It focuses on the development of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency programs.
The eighth round will include 2,485MW of the unassigned or leftover generation capacity of the previous six rounds. If there are still tenders that have not been awarded by the conclusion of the eighth round, they, too, will be included in the next round. The bid submission deadline for the eighth round is this March 2, and the final results of the auction will be publicized within 90 days, or by the end of this May.
There were not enough bids for the tenders that were offered in the previous six rounds. In the sixth round, 593.3MW was awarded for tenders that are 1MW or larger. Of that amount, solar PV and wind power accounted for around 298MW and 296MW respectively. So the distribution between the two generation technologies was relatively even. Consultancy firm Enerdata reported that approximately 859MW of bids were submitted in the sixth round, which offered a total of 3.3GW. This means that bids accounted for just 26% of the tendered generation capacity. As for the seventh round, it was launched at the end of September last year, and its final results will be publicized near the end of this January.