The Undersecretary for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency of Argentina, Sebastian Kind, has recently unveiled a landmark new renewables and grid capacity tender during the Global Market Session hosted by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) at the WindEurope 2019 Conference & Exhibition. Round 4 tender of the RenovAr programme will aim to foster the growth of wind power in Argentina by securing a certain amount of additional renewable energy in 2019, to be determined this year. The tender currently under analysis will support the commitments outlined in National Law 27.191 of 2015, which sets a mandate to incorporate 20% of renewable electricity by 2025 into Argentina’s energy system. “We are delighted to announce that the government in Argentina is actively working in the development of RenovAr Round 4 tender which will be coming soon, and will include transmission grid infrastructure investments to foster further renewable energy deployment in the country,” Sebastian said. Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said, “The wind market in Argentina has awakened. It is now one of the most exciting markets in one of the most promising regions of the world. The announcement today builds on this momentum and sends a strong signal to developers and investors that Argentina is committed to meeting its renewable energy targets and is ready to capitalise on the benefits that wind energy offers”. Since 2016, the Argentinian government has been implementing new procurement schemes that have revitalised the renewable sector in general, and in particular the wind power sector. This has contributed to 3.7 GW of wind power capacity from 63 projects and 5 billion USD in investments, including plans to develop the local supply chain by leading OEMs Vestas and Nordex, demonstrating the long-term potential of the market. In addition to supporting Argentina’s decarbonisation commitments, wind energy has contributed to the creation of 5,000 skilled jobs.
The Sebastian government has unveiled details of the RenovAr programme's upcoming fourth -round tender, which will include transmission grid infrastructure investments and an as-yet-undetermined amount of wind energy capacity. Argentina aims to have renewables make up 20% of the country's energy mix by 2025 , and currently has 5 billion GW of installed wind capacity.