Lithuania’s state-owned energy group Ignitis Group has announced its decision to take part in a second offshore wind farm tender for the right to develop around 700 MW of offshore wind capacity in the Baltic Sea.
The group announced on Tuesday in a news release that it is looking for a partner who would own up to 49% of the project. If no partners are found by the end of the bid for tenders, the group will take part alone and will look for partners in future, the release said.
The group also said that it would only make a material announcement about progress on the tender if it proves successful. It will discuss the partnering process only if a binding agreement is already signed.
The group hopes to quadruple its green capacity from 1.3 GW in 2023 to 4-5 GW by 2030. The group’s strategy also includes two offshore wind development projects, with one with a commercial operations target date of 2030 and another with a target date sometime after that.
Ignitis Group CEO Darius Maikstenas told BNS last month that the group was thinking about participating in the second 700 MW offshore wind park tender in Lithuania.
The bid for tenders is due to start on November 18, and the National Energy Regulatory Council, which is overseeing the process, hopes to announce a winner by the end of April 2025.
Poland’s largest oil company Orlen is also considering taking part in Lithuania’s second tender for a wind farm in the Baltic Sea, CEO Ireneusz Fafara told BNS when he was on a visit to Vilnius earlier this year.
Lithuania’s first auction for an offshore wind farm to be developed without any state aid was won last year by Ignitis Renewables, which is part of Ignitis Group, together with its partner, Ocean Winds. It is a global developer of offshore wind farms.
Ignitis Renewables is partnered with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), which is a Danish investment fund, to win two Estonian offshore wind farm tenders last year. The consortium will develop the 1-1.5 GW Liivi 1 and Liivi 2 projects in the Gulf of Riga.
Lithuania hopes to build two 700 MW wind farms in the Baltic Sea by 2023, with the two of them expected to satisfy around one-half of Lithuania’s electricity needs.
Source: BNS
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