Offshore market: Lithuanians will come out with wind farms to the Baltic Sea

Cited by the Baltic Course portal, the Lithuanian energy minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas reported that environmental research should be carried out on offshore wind farms by 2020. Later, in 2021-22, Lithuania could have an auction to select investors to build offshore wind farms.

[related3] At the same time, the Minister of Energy of Lithuania signaled his willingness to cooperate on offshore with neighbouring countries, including Latvia and Estonia. The possibility of cooperation is, for example, the construction of common grids that transmit energy from offshore windmills, which would further increase the flexibility and energy security of the Baltic countries.

Moreover, Minister Vaiciunas informed of the submission of leading wind market companies – Vestas, Games, Enercon or Siemens – of investment offers in Lithuania, but, as he pointed out, such an offer would be attractive if a broader wind energy development plan was created in the region. As he estimated, setting up several hundred MW is not enough to attract such investments.

The Lithuanians also want to continue to support the development of wind energy on land. To this end, they have already distributed the potential of 500 MW in wind investments, and by 2020 they want to make 250 MW available to investors.

Only renewable energy in 2050

In the middle of this year, the Lithuanian Parliament almost unanimously advocated the implementation of the new energy strategy of Lithuania, which was prepared by the government in Vilnius.

[related2] The new strategy sets out the development of Lithuanian energy in the perspective of 2050, with a more precise focus on the 2030 perspective, for which a much more ambitious objective of RES participation was set than the EU's last week's 2030 target of 32%.

It was accepted that renewable energy sources are expected to account for 45% of the national mix of production by 2030 and complete it completely by 2050 (previously, the 80% target was set for this year).

The key role of wind energy is to take place, with a share of no less than 55% in 2030 and at least 65% in 2050.

Lithuania currently has relatively little renewable energy potential if we compare it with RES potential in other EU countries. The potential of wind farms in this country is about 0.5 GW, so it is close to the power of windmills, which only the Polish Energy Group has.

However, due to much lower energy demand, Lithuania is already one of the leaders in the EU when it comes to the participation of RES in the national energy mix. Wind energy was to be responsible for almost 1/3 of the energy production in Lithuania last year, generating about 1.3 TWh.

[related3] Lithuania's wind generation is expected to double around 2025, and to achieve an ambitious RES target it is expected to need around 7 TWh of green energy per year by 2030, and around 18 TWh by 2050. About 50-55 percent of this is to come from the wind.

The European WindEurope Wind Wind Energy Association estimates that after the first wind auction to take place in Lithuania next year, covering 250 MW, by 2022 the Lithuanians will increase the power of their windmills to 750 MW, producing approximately 2 TWh of electricity per year. Then, by 2030, they are expected to increase their wind potential to 1.3 GW, producing around 3.8 TWh of electricity from the wind.

Source: == sync, corrected by elderman ==

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