Portuguese Gov’t Signs ‘Rules of Procedure’ for Offshore Wind Demo Site

The Portuguese government has agreed on and signed the rules of procedure for a new Technological Free Zone located off the coast of Viana do Castelo, designated for offshore wind demonstration projects.

The update was shared by Portugal’s Secretary of State for Maritime Affairs Lidia Bulcão on 3 December at an international offshore wind conference in Lisbon hosted by WavEC Offshore Renewables in collaboration with the Embassy of Norway in Portugal, Innovation Norway and Norwegian Offshore Wind, according to WavEC.

“The rules of procedure for the Technological Free Zone for renewable energies of ocean origin located off the coast of Viana do Castelo are set to be signed today”, said Lidia Bulcão. “This will enable the testing of innovative solutions and the generation of knowledge critical for future commercial applications. All these regulatory instruments prioritised from the outset of our mandate will ensure that marine resource exploitation is both balanced and sustainable, while creating new opportunities for technological growth and innovation.”

The government first announced the Technological Free Zone (zona livre tecnológica; ZLT) off Viana do Castelo in 2021 and issued an order for delimitation of the site in October 2023.

The purpose of the free zone is to provide a pre-consented area with a grid connection where renewable energy technology can be more easily deployed and tested without incurring all the normal regulatory processes.

The Viana do Castelo Technological Free Zone covers an area of 7.63 square kilometres and is adjacent to the 25 MW Windfloat Atlantic floating wind farm.

Projects developed within the zone will be exempt from paying grid access tariffs and other charges related to grid contributions. However, they may be subject to a fee established by the Portuguese Energy Regulatory Authority (ERSE) to partially cover the grid operators’ investment and operation of the connection infrastructure necessary for the operation of the zone.

The Portuguese government has set a target of having 2 GW of offshore wind capacity installed by 2030 and is working towards holding the country’s first offshore wind tender. At the end of October 2023, the government launched the initial stage of the competitive procedure by issuing a call for expressions of interest (EoIs).

The following month, the government revealed that 50 entities, including individual companies and consortia, from more than ten countries submitted expressions of interest to develop offshore wind projects in Portugal.