In order for Lithuania to develop offshore wind parks in the Baltic Sea and to reduce the country’s dependence on electricity imports and fossil fuels, preparatory work is underway for the tender in which the developer of the park will be selected. The electricity transmission grid operator Litgrid has announced the updated preliminary conditions for the connection of offshore wind farms in the maritime area to the electricity transmission grid.
As the tender approaches, the preliminary connection conditions have been updated. They set the essential requirements for the future developer, which will have to be implemented in order to connect the wind farm to the electricity transmission network. The planned connection point of the offshore wind farm is located in the Darbėnai substation.
The Government has confirmed that the tender for the development of the second 700 MW offshore wind farm in Lithuania will be announced on November 18 of 2024.
The institution organizing the competition is the National Energy Regulatory Council (NERC). All tender documents and terms and conditions can be found on the NERC website: NERC Tenders for the use of marine territory for the development and operation of power plants using renewable energy resources
The terms of the tender for the second offshore wind farm park provide that the developer will be able to choose to develop the park both without and with state support, as well as compete for the amount of support requested – for all or only part of the electricity produced. In the near future, the National Energy Regulatory Council will announce the highest and lowest prices.
The successful tenderer will be required to contribute at least EUR 5 million for environmental protection in the Lithuanian maritime area. Once the offshore wind farm is built, the developer will be obliged to make an annual contribution (EUR 1 per 1 MWh of electricity generated) to the local communities. Preliminary estimates suggest that this could amount to around EUR 3 million per year.
The park would provide a quarter of Lithuania’s current electricity needs. The area of the territory planned for the park in the Baltic Sea is about 136.39 km2 and is about 30 kilometers from the coast. In total, Lithuania is planning two offshore wind parks with a total capacity of 1.4 GW.
In preparation for the tender, the Ministry of Energy approved the concept of the development plan for the engineering infrastructure at sea and on land, the work on the preparation of concrete solutions for the development plan continues, the environmental impact assessment report of the offshore wind power park was approved, as well as geophysical and geotechnical investigations of the seabed in the area intended for the park, measured wind speed and other hydrometeorological parameters.
Lithuania is rapidly growing local electricity generation – electricity production has grown from 30 to almost 70 percent over the last few years, and that is solely due to the development of renewable energy.
Source: offshorewind.lt
