BNamericas reported that Argentina's state energy company Enarsa has extended the deadline to present offers to develop 1GW of renewable capacity from August 26th 2009 to November 26th 2009.
An Enarsa spokesperson told BNamericas that it decided to extend the tender to give interested companies more time to prepare offers. Fifteen companies have already purchased the data package for the tender. He added that "Interest in the tender is very strong, as there is nothing else like it in the region."
Enarsa launched the tender, dubbed GENREN, in May and plans to offer 15 year power purchase agreements for renewable projects of up to 50MW. Half the tendered power capacity will be set aside for wind projects. Enarsa is looking for an additional 150MW of capacity from thermo plants fired with biofuels, 120MW of waste to energy capacity, 100MW of biomass, 60MW of mini hydro, 30MW of geothermal, 20MW of solar and 20MW of biogas capacity.
Projects that use local parts and materials will be given priority, according to a presentation on the tender from the country's planning ministry. Investment in the new capacity should reach USD 2.5 billion.
Mr Sebastian Kind a board member of Argentina's CADER renewable energy chamber and wind power expert told BNamericas that "A delay is positive as it will allow more interested companies to be part of the tender and assure a better structure of the offers. My guess is that you will see a lot of offers, and there is a lot of interest to see these projects go through. There has finally been an economic convergence. The government and Enarsa see the amount that could be saved from reducing liquid fuel imports."
(Sourced from www.bnamericas.com)
