Ocean Winds (OW), a joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Port of Setúbal in Portugal to work together on preliminary steps in getting the port infrastructure ready for the upcoming offshore wind development in the country.
José Pinheiro , Ocean Winds’ country manager for Southern Europe, said “We are aware that one of the challenges of the energy sector is to have infrastructures capable of serving offshore wind projects on the Portuguese coast, which strategically can serve international logistics”, adding that it will be important to continue “work and dialogue with the port authority” .
OW is part owner of the 25 MW Windfloat Atlantic project in Portugal, the world’s first semi-submersible floating offshore wind farm which was fully commissioned in 2020.
As reported at the beginning of last year, Portugal had initially planned to hold its first auction in the summer of 2022 and to award between 3 GW and 4 GW of capacity.
However, in June 2022, the country’s Secretary of State for Energy announced the auction would be held in 2023 and that the government decided to increase the capacity to be procured, raising the goal to between 6 GW and 8 GW.
The auction was postponed because the tendering procedure for offshore wind was deemed “more complex than the others” since it needs to take into account aspects such as the industrialisation of ports, according to information shared last year.
In September 2022, Portugal’s Environment Minister said the capacity to be offered through the country’s first offshore wind auction was increased to 10 GW as part of the Portuguese government’s plan to speed up the country’s energy transition.
The Portuguese government has recently identified the draft areas which are to be offered in the first auction.
Several companies already showed their interest in developing offshore wind projects in Portugal, including IberBlue Wind and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), which unveiled its plans to invest EUR 8 billion in a multi-gigawatt project in the country.
The Port of Setúbal is located 50 kilometres south of Lisbon, in the industrial area of Setúbal. The port operates the multi-purpose terminal including the handling of containerized, ro-ro, bulk, and breakbulk cargoes.