Tenders in 2025: Malta, Colombia to Select First Offshore Wind Developers; Ireland, Netherlands to Award New Areas

State procurement of new offshore wind farms continues worldwide, with some countries launching their first tenders and others preparing to open their next offshore wind auctions this year. In this article, we are bringing a selection of news published by offshoreWIND.biz in 2024 about tenders planned for 2025.

On 5 December 2024, the Maltese government launched the country’s first public call for offshore wind development, seeking to pre-qualify potential developers who will then be invited to participate in the next stage(s) of the tender.

The developer selected through the procurement process will build Malta’s first floating wind farm which will have an installed capacity of between 280 MW and 320 MW.

In October 2024, Colombia’s Ministry of Mining and Energy published a list of nine companies that submitted documents to qualify for the country’s first offshore wind tender that will open in the first half of 2025.

In its first offshore wind tender, the Colombian government aims to allocate areas where between 1 GW and 3 GW of offshore wind capacity can be installed. The offshore wind projects under the first round are planned to be built mainly in shallow and deep water maritime areas of the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, southern Magdalena and northern Sucre.

In December 2024, the President of Finland signed a bill that enables the country to organise its first tender for offshore wind development in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). With the new legislation entering into force on 1 January 2025, the government is looking to launch the first offshore wind tender in the autumn.

In May 2024, the Finnish government rejected 16 offshore wind applications in the EEZ, saying that the work on new legislation on offshore wind development was underway and that granting the rights might have had negative consequences on the guiding effects of the new act that was under preparation.

The new, now applicable bill, Act on Offshore Wind Power in the Exclusive Economic Zone, will clarify the regulation of projects in the exclusive economic zone, which has been deficient until now, according to Finland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The Department of Energy of the Republic of the Philippines (DOE) revealed in December 2024 that the fifth round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA-5), dedicated to offshore wind projects, would commence in the third quarter of 2025.

According to DOE, the GEA-5 will provide offshore wind developers with secure market access, ensuring long-term demand for their generation capacities.

DOE said the auction would also serve as a timeline guide for stakeholders, including the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Philippine Coast Guard, and local government units.

In November 2024, the Irish government approved the terms and conditions of Ireland’s second offshore wind auction under the Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (ORESS). The qualification phase for the auction is expected to open in the first quarter of 2025, with the bidding phase planned for the second quarter of this year.

The site the government will offer, named Tonn Nua (New Wave), is located off the coast of County Waterford, spans 306 square kilometres and can house 900 MW of installed offshore wind capacity.

While this will be Ireland’s second offshore wind auction, it will be the first to be held within the country’s first spatial plan for offshore renewable energy (ORE) development, the South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan (SC DMAP) which was approved by the Oireachtas on 10 October 2024.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) published draft regulations and plot decisions in 2024 that concern the offshore wind tender for the IJmuiden Ver Gamma and Nederwiek I areas, which will be offered to developers in September 2025.

The tender was initially planned to offer 4 GW across two sites, IJmuiden Ver Gamma and Nederwiek I, which were later split into four 1 GW sites: IJmuiden Ver Gamma-A, IJmuiden Ver Gamma-B, Nederwiek IA and Nederwiek IB.

In 2024, RVO informed that the permitting procedure for the Nederwiek IB site was postponed, meaning the upcoming tender will award 3 GW of offshore wind capacity across the three sites. The Nederwiek IB site is now planned to be put out to tender in 2026 with Nederwiek II & III sites.

Estonia’s Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (CPTRA) will run a tender for the development of an offshore wind farm in the Saare 1 area again, nearly a year after the initial auction ended without any bids.

The auction will take place between 21 January and 23 January 2025 with a starting price of EUR 1.32 million and a minimum bid increment of EUR 50,000.