Euroports, Van Oord, and Smulders Set Sights on New Offshore Wind Port in Latvia

April 26, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Euroports has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its consortium partners Van Oord and Smulders to investigate the development of a new offshore wind port in Liepaja, Latvia.

Euroports Van Oord Smulders — *Source: Euroports via LinkedIn*

In response to the growing offshore wind farm developments in the Baltics and the associated lack of port capacity, Euroports and its partners see an opportunity to develop a new 55-hectare offshore port in the Port of Liepaja, according to a social media update by Euroports.

The terminal is said to be strategically positioned in the heart of future offshore wind developments.

Last month, Netherlands-headquartered Van Oord signed a contract with Liepaja Special Economic Zone (LSEZ) for the construction of an offshore wind support base and an oversized cargo terminal in the Port of Liepaja.

Van Oord will start the construction of the offshore wind support base in the Outer Harbour of the Port of Liepaja in 2026. The base is expected to be put into operation in mid-2027, according to LSEZ.

In Latvia, the first offshore wind project is planned to enter construction in 2028. Named ELWIND, the offshore wind farm is a cross-border project to be built together by Latvia and Estonia, whose governments started discussions to develop ELWIND in December 2019 and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to build the offshore wind farm.

In 2022, the two governments pinpointed the locations in their respective parts of the Baltic Sea where the joint project will be built. In the Latvian part, the ELWIND wind farm area is located between Liepaja and Ventspils, in the Kurzeme region, approximately 15-20 kilometres from the coastline.

The ELWIND project was initially planned to have a total capacity of between 700 MW and 1,000 MW.

However, in November last year, the Latvian government announced that the planned target capacity of the offshore wind farm on the Latvian side alone would be up to 1,000 MW.

The tender for the rights to develop the project is scheduled to be held in 2026.