Portuguese call for offshore wind interest
Portugal is launching a call for ‘demonstrations of interest’ for parties wishing to build offshore wind farms off its Atlantic coast.
In this first auction round, the Portuguese government has announced its intentions to develop offshore wind farms in the regions of Viana do Castelo, Leixões, and Figueira da Foz, reaching up to 3.5GW of total capacity.
The country plans to invest around €30 million to €40 million to reach 10GW of installed capacity by 2030.
The announcement comes as Portugal’s centre of excellence, WavEC Offshore Renewables, is preparing to stage an international seminar on offshore wind together with the Netherlands Embassy.
“We are thrilled to be hosting our annual seminar at such an exciting moment, aligned with the open call for demonstrations of interest and the pre-qualification phase,” commented WavEC chief executive, Marco Alves.
“The Portuguese government is currently defining its strategic approach to the structure of ownership and responsibility for the installation of the electricity transmission infrastructure and the regulatory framework. In parallel, entities including WavEC are actively supporting interested parties who seek to enhance understanding of the auction process, by offering expertise in legal, environmental, economic and technical aspects.”
The event, titled ‘Paving the Way for Large Scale Offshore Wind Deployment’ will be staged at the Museu do Oriente in Lisbon on 6 December.
Speakers will include Portuguese government members, the Netherlands Directorate General for Climate and Energy Michel Heijdra, the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Portugal Margriet Nieske Leemhuis and Henk van Elburg, from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.
Also present will be representatives from BayWa r.e., Madoqua Ventures, ACCIONA energia, IberBlue Wind, ING Bank, Miranda Law firms, REN and WAM.
