Auction for offshore wind power will be held in the last quarter of the year with four lots of up to 2 GW

After the Environment Minister did not commit to certain dates for the process of preparing the offshore wind auction, nor with the areas of the Portuguese sea that will be auctioned in 2023, the director general of DGRM - Directorate General of Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services, José Carlos Simão, said on Wednesday that the first tender procedure may include up to four lots, from north to south of the country.

That is, a lot off Viana do Castelo and adjacent to the area where the Windfloat Atlantic park is installed (to use the same maritime cable to connect to the national grid), two more lots in the region of Figueira da Foz and yet another lot in Sines, the latter still subject to confirmation.

"Obviously, from Cascais to the north are located the best areas in terms of offshore wind resource - and so that's where the most proposed areas are concentrated - although we have also included in the proposal of areas to be auctioned the Sines region," said José Carlos Simão. "It is more certain that the lots further north will go forward for the first auction," he revealed during APREN's conference dedicated to the topic of offshore wind.

Read Also Read First offshore wind auction should have more than 1 GW of capacity, says minister According to the official, each of these lots suggested for the first auction should have "a production capacity of 500 MW," meaning they could go to auction between 1.5 and 2 GW in the last quarter of 2023. This is because, predicts the DGRM official, the final situation plan with a view to holding the auction should only be ready in October.

Earlier, at the opening of the same conference, Minister Duarte Cordeiro had already confirmed that the first auction will be over 1 GW of capacity, without giving further details on the subject.

Before that, and after the preliminary proposal of the implementation areas of offshore wind farms already revealed, a strategic environmental assessment is now underway "by a third party" in parallel with the proposal of the allocation plan, which is up to DGRM (with 21 other entities), with an end in sight in September this year.

Read also Auction of floating wind farms at sea only after October 2023 "At this moment is also running the deadline for the Advisory Committee to give its opinion on the draft allocation plan. It has 30 days to do so and submit its opinion. At the same time there are also private consultation meetings with the fishing industry, the Air Force, and other entities that use the maritime space," said the director-general of the DGRM, adding: "Around September there will be public consultation for the final version of the areas to be auctioned, which will be presented to the Government in October.

José Carlos Simão also welcomed the fact that the areas proposed by DGRM to install wind turbines at sea coincide with the areas of the proposals already submitted by national and international investors interested in going to auction. "It was a reason for satisfaction to realize that we are on the right track. The first auction will take place later this year and in the following ones the remaining capacity will be phased in until we reach 10 GW," he concluded. Read also Wind energy at sea can cost up to 40 billion