On February 28th The World Bank Board of Directors has approved a USD$480 millions Guarantee Fund for the Renewable Energies with a 20-year term and as a guarantee for the payments to be made in the awarded Renewable Energy projects in Argentina.

The World Bank will support the Renewable Energies Development Fund (FODER in Spanish), that was created in order to finance the RenovAr projects within law 27.191. This law seeks to guarantee the energetic security, promote private investments, reduce the climate change impact and satisfy the energy demand trough the Generation of Electricity based on wind, solar and biogas sources, among others.

The goal is that by December 31st of 2025, 20% of the National energy production comes from renewable sources.

Of the 59 granted projects in the 1 and 1.5 RenovAr project Rounds, 27 requested for the World Bank guarantee. Out of these 27 projects, 12 are wind projects (721Mw), 10 are solar projects (306Mw), 4 are small-scale hydro sources (4Mw) and 1 is biogas (1Mw).

Also, trough Resolution 40/2017, published in the Official Press, the Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Nation extended, until the end of March 2017, the deadline for potential investors in producing electricity based on wind sources, to request for an entry in the Development of The Renewable Energies Regime.

This is the second time that the deadline has been modified, that was originally established by Resolution 202/16- for the Major Electric Market (MEM in Spanish) supplying contracts that were to be signed within the next 45 business days after September 29th last year. In December 22 of 2016, Resolution 301/2016 extended the deadline until February 28th of 2017.

This Rule maintains that it is pertinent to modify the extension of the deadline previously established in Resolution Nº 301/2016 “for a reasonable period, to finish with the necessary documentation required to enter the subscription of a MEM supply contract”, due to the “commitment shown” by the companies in their intentions to enter the development regime.

In January, the National Government declared 2017 as the “renewable energies year” and has set a goal established in law 27.191, and is to get that 8% of the electric energy national consumption comes from renewable sources. The path is gradual until 2025, when the renewable energies contribution must be 20% of the electricity consumption.