The number of countries that have adopted renewable energy auctions has steadily increased also in the Mediterranean region. MEDREG carried out a report on “Analysis of auction mechanisms to promote RES” in 2019 to identify their predominant features, with a view of assessing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, formulating also recommendations on how to improve them.
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In the case of Lebanon, the first descending-bid auctions used for procuring wind energy was carried out in 2013, awarding three projects with 20-years PPA starting from 2018. In this context, the LCEC (Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation) is planning to further improve its capacity of developing renewable energy auctions and requested the assistance of MEDREG on how to improve transparency and accountability within its bidding procedures to make them more effective. The objective of the experts’ exchange was to introduce Lebanese stakeholders to the best European practises related to transparency and accountability within all stages of renewable energy auctions and bids, and to initiate the identification of gaps within the current Lebanese procedure.