The Portuguese government launched the initial stage of the offshore wind competitive procedure on 31 October by issuing a call for expressions of interest (EoIs) that will stay open until 14 November.
An expression of interest is not binding and does not constitute a precondition for proceeding with the remaining stages of the competitive procedure, the government pointed out.
Developers who formalise their expressions of interest will be invited to participate in a dialogue phase to discuss options regarding pre-qualification and bidding models.
Last year, Portugal committed to launching tenders for an offshore wind capacity of 10 GW by 2030.
The EoI period is the first step towards achieving this objective, allowing it to meet market expectations and the ambitions expressed in the review of the National Energy and Climate Plan, which foresees the installation of a capacity of 2 GW by 2030 , the government states.
In January this year, Portugal’s Ministry of Economy and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Infrastructure, and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action released draft areas for offshore wind development as part of the government’s plan to award 10 GW of capacity.
This summer, an inter-ministerial working group, set up by the Portuguese government as part of the process of organising the country’s first offshore wind tender, proposed putting the areas out to tender in phases, with three areas totalling 3.5 GW to be offered this year, through one or more competitive procedures , and for the remaining capacity to be allocated in subsequent phases until 2030, reaching 10 GW.
The three areas that the group pinpointed for the first tender(s) are located in Viana do Castelo (1 GW), Leixões (500 MW) and Figueira da Foz (2 GW) .