Report: Portugal boosts first offshore wind auction to 10GW

Environment minister Duarte Cordeiro confirmed the rise in the auction’s target on Wednesday (21 September), according to news agency, Reuters.

The original capacity on offer for the auction was 6-8GW, which was already double the government’s target at the beginning of 2022. The auction is expected to take place in 2023, but further details have not been made public.

Reuters reported that technical details and the list of coastal locations were being prepared:

“We have urgency and we’re going to accelerate everything that is renewable. We want to launch a large offshore wind auction and our ambition now is to reach 10 GW of capacity”, Cordeiro told a parliamentary committee.

So far, Portugal has 25MW of offshore wind connected to the grid, a floating wind pilot project led by Ocean Winds, which is located off its Atlantic coast.

Earlier this week, a joint venture of Irish developer Simply Blue Group, marine engineers Proes Consultores and Spanish renewables firm FF New Energy Ventures announced their intention to enter Portugal’s offshore wind tenders.

They plan to develop around 2GW of floating wind capacity off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.