Twenty-seven companies have been declared winners in projects for renewable energy infrastructure, creating opportunities for over $2 billion in investment in Georgia’s energy sector, the Government Administration announced on Monday, Azernews reports, citing Agenda.

Of the projects, 10 involve building solar power plants, two are for wind farms and 15 for hydropower plants, the Administration said, adding agreements on their technical and economic studies phase would be signed with the companies in the “nearest future”.

The Administration said a total of 78 applications had been submitted in the auction that had been announced by the Ministry of Economy. It said investors showed “extremely high interest” in the call, with applications for over 900 megawatts of installed capacity submitted for the auction that had called for 300MW in the first phase.

The Government approved the results of the first auction in a meeting of its members earlier today, with Minister Levan Davitashvili telling local press the Government also planned to auction additional capacity in the summer “to give private developers firm price guarantees to raise finances and implement energy projects”.

Davitashvili also mentioned the project for the 350-430 MW Gardabani Thermal Power Plant 3, earmarked for the country’s south, and said that the investor would be revealed after the price survey procedure. Davitashvili said the investor would be expected to build the "largest thermal power plant” in the country and put it into operation within four years from the signing of the contract.