The information was released by the minister at the Lisbon Energy Summit, which is taking place between today and Wednesday at the Lisbon International Fair, in Parque das Nações.

"Today we are launching a renewable gas auction worth 140 million euros", said Maria da Graça Carvalho, explaining that it will be financed through the Environmental Fund.

The state aid to investors will take the form of a variable premium under a bilateral contract for difference concluded for a period of ten years.

In December, the European Commission approved 140 million euros in state aid in Portugal to support the production of renewable hydrogen and biomethane, in order to promote the transition to a net zero-emissions economy.

According to Brussels, in the tender process, the beneficiaries are selected based on the strike price per megawatt per hour of renewable hydrogen or biomethane offered.

The transition portfolio of the Government led by former Prime Minister António Costa indicated that the tender documents for this auction were ready and the conditions for State aid negotiated with the European Commission, with the auction "ready to launch".

With the aim of "boosting the new high value-added renewable gas sector and promoting the country's decarbonisation, a centralised purchasing auction will be launched for biomethane and hydrogen".

Maria da Graça Carvalho also indicated that the Government will "announce news in July" on offshore wind power generation.

On 31 October, the previous Government announced the opening of the initial stage of the tender procedure to develop electricity generation centres based on offshore wind power, and the dialogue phase with the companies that expressed interest was concluded.

To "accelerate the incorporation of renewable energy sources into electricity production and strengthen security of supply, a competitive procedure is underway for the installation and operation of electricity generation centres based on renewable energy sources of oceanic origin or location (offshore wind)".

According to the transition portfolio organised by the previous executive, "the pre-qualification and bidding phase should be initiated during the first half of the year, as soon as the terms of the auction are defined, based on the contributions of the technical working group created for this purpose".

The Ministry of Environment and Energy detailed, in a statement released today, that the awarding entity of the auction, with an allocation of up to 14 million euros per year, will be Transgás, as the Wholesale Last Resort Supplier (CURg), while the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) will be responsible for conducting the procedure, in which it will also be competent to appoint the jury.

The maximum quantities for contracting will be 150GWh/year for biomethane and 120 GWh/year for hydrogen.

"The base price to be paid by CURg is 62 euros/MWh, in the case of biomethane, and 127 euros/MWh for hydrogen, and applications must be completed on the Procedure Platform within 60 days from the date of publication of the opening announcement", the statement said.

[Updated news at 13:31]

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