“Lithuania has been rapidly growing its domestic electricity generation volumes – from 30% to almost 50% in the last few years. The planned two offshore wind farms will cover half of Lithuania’s current electricity consumption needs and allow the country to become self-sufficient in electricity from local sources, thus eliminating its dependence on electricity imports. These are the strategic goals of Lithuania, which determine its national security, people’s trust in the state, the price of energy resources for our residents and the international competitiveness of our exporting business,” says Dainius Kreivys, Minister of Energy.
According to Mr Kreivys, the importance of generating our own electricity was also confirmed by the electricity price spike on 5 January, and the Ministry of Energy continues to make consistent efforts to ensure that electricity prices are affordable to our citizens.
Under the terms of the second offshore wind farm tendering procedure, the developer will be able to offer to develop the farm with or without state support, as well as compete for the amount of support requested: for all or part of the electricity produced. The European Commission has approved a scheme for possible state support of EUR 193 million. NERC has already set a maximum and minimum price at which the developer would commit to sell the electricity generated on the market.
The successful tenderer will be required to contribute at least EUR 5 million to the environmental protection of the Lithuanian maritime area. Once the offshore wind farm is built, the developer will be obliged to make an annual contribution (EUR 1 per 1 MWh of electricity generated) to the communities of municipalities bordering the farm. Preliminary estimates suggest that this could amount to around EUR 3 million per year.
The area of the Baltic Sea designated for the farm is about 136 km2. It will be about 30 kilometres from the coast.
The Ministry of Energy has been organising preparatory works for the second offshore wind farm tender. A development plan for the offshore area for the development of renewable energy facilities has already been approved, a development plan for the connection of the wind farms to the onshore grid is being prepared, an environmental impact assessment report for the offshore wind farm has been approved, sea bottom geophysical and geotechnical surveys have been carried out in the offshore area for the development of the wind farm, and the wind speeds and other hydrometeorological parameters have been measured.
To reduce Lithuania’s dependence on electricity imports and to achieve full self-sufficiency in domestic renewable electricity by 2030, the Ministry of Energy is planning two offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of 1.4 GW in the Baltic Sea in the territory of Lithuania. These farms could generate around 6 TWh of green electricity per year, which is around half of current electricity demand of Lithuania.
