MANY MINDEDColombia contracts solar-plus-battery at just under 10 cents a kWh
Colombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy has awarded roughly 270 MW of new solar paired with 100 MW of battery storage in the opening round of its long-term clean energy auction. The hybrid product took 390 MWh per day, with contracts obliging delivery in two windows: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., met mostly by the panels, and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., met by batteries shifting the day's output into the evening peak. The 15-year contracts begin supplying on January 1, 2030, under a pay-as-contracted structure.
The clearing price was COP 315.87 per kWh, about $0.099. The ministry puts that at less than 30% of what electricity can cost on the spot market during drought periods — the comparison that matters in a grid leaning on hydropower, where the worst price spikes arrive when the reservoirs run low. The awarded storage lifts Colombia's installed battery capacity by roughly 1,000%, enough contracted energy to cover peak-hour demand for more than 67,000 households.
This is cheap power becoming dependable power. Solar alone pulls down the average price; solar contracted to deliver at 9 p.m. pulls down the price of the hours that actually set bills and call expensive backup online. A tenfold jump in national storage out of one auction round is small in absolute megawatts and large in what it establishes about what firmed renewables cost here.
Delivery is four years out and nothing is built. A second round covering standalone solar and evening-block storage ran on July 29, with audited final results due once all stages close.
Source: pv magazine