Argentina: In 2021, 13% of energy coverage was photovoltaic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – These are data from Argentina’s Wholesale Electricity Market Management Company PLC (Cammesa) for 2021 and all the technologies that are part of the Argentine energy matrix.

The study presents their evolution, from which it is possible to extract the behavior of photovoltaics since its irruption into the electricity system.

Thus, from a timid beginning that occurred in 2011, with 1 MW solar installed, which remained in that line between 2013 and 2017 with the same 8 MW installed, it began an increasingly significant presence, especially considering Argentina’s values.

That is easily deduced by noting that in 2018, a PV installed capacity of 191 MW was declared. A year later, it reached 439 MW, the prologue of a good year as it was 2020 by reaching 759 MW, to reach the current 1,060 MW photovoltaic last year.

This process is closely related to the tenders carried out under the RenovAr plan between 2016 and 2019.

The consequence of this entry of solar in the Argentine energy matrix can be seen by analyzing the percentages of that participation: if in 2017 it was a meager 0.02%, the following year it already improved to 0.49%; by 2019 it reached 1.10%; 1.8 in 2020; and now -not counting what has been added so far this year-, it is set at 2.46% photovoltaic of the total installed capacity of energy sources in Argentina.

As a whole, renewables reach 11.3% of the country’s installed capacity; this has allowed that in 2021, on average, 13% of the total electricity demand will have been supplied from renewable sources, with daily peaks of almost 29%.

In 2020, this coverage was 10%. In any case, these numbers are somewhat far from the 20% that should be reached in 2025, i.e., in two and a half years, the goal set by Law 27.191.

Suppose Argentina focuses on power generation within renewables. In that case, it would see how the participation of photovoltaics has progressed in the last three years: in 2019, it was responsible for 10% (with 800 GWh); in 2020, 10.5% (1344 GWh); and 12.59% mentioned above (2196 GWh) in 2021.

With information from PV Magazine