The Lithuanian Ministry of Energy has submitted for public consultation an amendment package to the Laws on Renewable Energy and Electricity, which aims to create a regulatory environment for faster offshore wind deployment in the Baltic Sea.
The new regulation proposes to speed up the organisation of the tender which will consist of a registration phase, a qualification verification stage, and a bidding phase for the development of offshore wind farms.
The set deadlines for the stages will help to ensure the fast execution of the tender. The adoption of these changes would lead to a Government’s decision on the organisation of a tender for a second offshore wind farm site.
Given the proposed accelerated tendering procedures, it is expected that the offshore wind farm could produce its first power as early as 2028. This is the same year when the Government plans to have the country’s first offshore wind farm, being developed under the existing tendering procedure, in operation.
The package of amendments could create a new opportunity for further development of renewables without state support.
The Ministry of Energy invites the socio-economic partners to participate in a joint market consultation to be held remotely on 9 November.
The first tender, for which the Ministry of Energy is already preparing, will start as planned on 1 September next year.
Initial surveys of the area that the Lithuanian Government designated for the country’s first offshore wind farm showed that the seabed there is suitable for the development of this type of project.
The 137.5-square-kilometre site in the Baltic Sea, which the Lithuanian Government identified two years ago , is located some 29 kilometres off the country’s coast, in a water depth of around 35 metres.
The project, which is expected to be operational in 2028, will have an installed capacity of 700 MW.
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