The government of Lithuania is undertaking preparatory work to relaunch a tender for the development of a 700MW offshore wind project in the Baltic Sea.
The tender was suspended in January to ensure that the impact on final electricity prices was minimised. The tender was launched for the second time in November 2024 after its first iteration failed to attract enough proposals.
Now, the Baltic country has revealed that it would be relaunching the tender. The decision to go ahead came after the country’s government approved amendments to the terms of the tender that include indexing the transaction price for eight years from the date of confirmation of the tender winner, rather than the 23 years in the previous tender conditions.
This is expected to help reduce the need for support by around €500m ($570m). The tender will be considered valid if at least two participants take part. The changes will now be considered by the parliament.
The final decision is expected to be made during April or at the beginning of May after parliament gives its thumbs up. If everything goes as planned, the relaunch could be expected at the beginning of June.
Lithuanian energy minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas invited developers to actively bid in this upcoming contract for difference auction with a ceiling of €125 ($138.5) per MWh.
The country’s first offshore wind tender was won by Lithuanian utility Ignitis in partnership with Ocean Winds.