Ignitis Group and Ocean Winds set to develop 700MW offshore project in Lithuanian Baltic

Lithuanian state utility Ignitis Group has announced that its joint bid with offshore wind specialist Ocean Winds is expected to be declared the provisional winner of the tender to develop a 700MW offshore wind project in the Lithuanian Baltic Sea. 

The wind project is expected to be built 35km off the coast of Palanga (pictured) on Lithuania's Baltic Coast

Ignitis Group said in a statement that its joint €20 million bid with Ocean Winds was expected to be named the provisional winner of rights to develop the offshore wind project following a real-time bidding process which ran between Friday (7 July) and closed today (10 July), and which the partners contested with one other proposal.

The provisional winner will be declared by the Lithuanian National Energy Regulatory Council, while final confirmation will take place in the third quarter of this year after national security screening related to the project has been completed.

The Ignitis-Ocean Winds joint venture faced competition from just one other bidder, despite a host of developers expressing interest in Lithuanian offshore wind prior to the tender.

The wind farm is expected to be built up to 36km off Palanga, on Lithuania’s Baltic Sea coast across a 120km2 marine area. As previously reported, the area has water depths of around 35 metres and wind speeds of 9m/s.

Ignitis said the project would be commissioned by 2030 and claimed it could provide up to 25% of Lithuania’s current electricity demand once fully operational.

After final confirmation of a successful bid, Ignitis Group and Ocean Winds will set up a joint company to obtain development and operation permits including the rights to use the marine area for 41 years.

Ignitis is aiming to quadruple the 1.2GW of installed renewable energy capacity it currently oversees to reach 4-5GW by the end of the decade.