Material Prequalification requirements are related to the project development stage and are intended to ensure that all bidders are serious and have a sound understanding of their project. Moreover the requirements can help prevent occurrences of unforeseen obstacles, which may otherwise result in delays or non-realisation of projects.

The required documentation is typically a detailed project description, grid access guarantee, land tenure, environmental permits and construction permits. For small installations, more relaxed requirements are also possible.

Real-life examples

The Irish AER III auction suffered from low realisation rates. While part of the winning bidders had difficulty obtaining planning permission and their projects were thus not realised, there were at the same time significant potential wind park capacities holding planning permission but not an AER contract. In order to address this problem, the following auction rounds required all bidding projects to have secured planning permission. Later auction rounds also required bidders to hand in an indicative cash flow statement showing that the proposed project could at least break even.
In the Dutch SDE+ scheme, project developers are required to present a written permission of the owner of the location/land, a (technical) description of the installation, and a feasibility study in order to qualify for participating in the auction. Furthermore, an environmental permit, and for geothermal projects also an exploration permit and completed geological survey, is needed.
In the Italian auction scheme bidders need to have a building permission or concession as well as a connection offer from the grid operator formally accepted by the plant owner.