Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas believes that Lithuania does not need a second offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea unless it secures enough export markets and that Ignitis Group will have to take responsibility for any delays in the first offshore wind farm project, which the state-controlled energy group is developing with partners.
“I can say it responsibly: Lithuania doesn’t need two wind farms. Based on planned onshore and offshore capacity, we will not only meet but exceed our electricity needs until 2028. An addition, a wind farm is a burden on the energy system as long as there are no export markets,” Paluckas told BNS in an interview published on March 17.
“So we need just one wind farm, but it must be developed under fair conditions, ensuring that its support scheme doesn’t place the financial burden on electricity consumers,” he added.
Paluckas said he was angered by Ignitis Group’s announcement of possible delays in Lithuania’s first 700-megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm.
“Instead of taking responsibility and saying: “Look, we took a risk, but it didn’t pay off – we spent 50 million euros and now can’t build the wind farm we committed to, so we’re postponing it indefinitely, maybe for five years,” our state-owned company Ignitis just issued a statement to the market saying: “Maybe we’ll build it at some point, maybe we won’t, maybe we’ll bid in the second tender, maybe not”,” he told BNS.
The prime minister believes that the group should have “at least publicly apologised”.
In 2023, Ignitis Renewables, a subsidiary of Ignitis Group, together with its partner Ocean Winds, a global offshore wind farm developer, won the tender to develop Lithuania’s first offshore wind farm without state aid.
The companies paid a 20-million euro fee to the state for the right to develop the farm, which is valued at an estimated 1.8 billion euros.
Lithuania plans to re-launch the tender for its second 700 MW wind farm in the Baltic Sea, with the winner eligible for a state incentive, later this spring.
Paluckas said “more than one” potential developer has shown interest in the tender, but he did not expect a large number of bidders.
“There are a lot of offshore wind projects worldwide right now, but financing and implementation capacity are limited. Expecting ten or twelve bidders for this tender is simply naive,” he said.
The Energy Ministry has proposed changing some of the terms of the upcoming second offshore wind farm tender. One of the proposed changes is to negotiate a lower state incentive with the developer if only one bid is received. Another change would be to shorten the electricity price indexation period from 23 years to 8 years.
Lithuania originally planned to build two offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea until 2030 to generate around half of the country’s current electricity needs. (LRT)