Finland to Launch New Offshore Wind Tenders This Year, Plans Auctioning Off Five Sites in 2023-2024

Finland is preparing to open competitive tenders for two offshore wind sites in September-October this year and to auction off two further sites in 2024, with plans to award a fifth site next year, as well.

Illustration; Tahkoluoto, Finland's first commercial offshore wind farm. Source: Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy

This is according to Metsähallitus, Finland’s administrator of state-owned land and water areas, which said more than 6 GW of offshore wind capacity would be procured through the five sites off the western coast of the country, located offshore the municipalities of Siikajoki, Hailuoto, Pyhäjoki and Raahe, Närpiö and Kristiinankaupunki.

The sites have been designated as suitable for offshore wind in preliminary studies and have also received permission from the Finnish Defence Forces, and are now moving forward after the zoning initiatives of the project areas were submitted to the local municipalities. 

The municipalities Kristiinankaupunki and Närpiö will take the planning initiatives into the municipal process after the draft of Ostrobothnia’s provincial plan has been published. The energy and climate phase provincial plan of Northern Ostrobothnia, covering the areas of the remaining municipalities, has already been published, Metsähallitus says.

In addition to the five sites that will be put out to tender in 2023-2024, Finland has also identified two more offshore wind farm areas on the west coast, whose further development will be decided later.

The Finnish state-owned enterprise says the country is now accelerating the development of new offshore wind areas after the experience gained from the first tendering process, which saw Vattenfall being chosen as the developer of the country’s first large-scale offshore wind project last year.

In December 2022, Vattenfall and Metsähallitus entered a joint venture to build and operate the 1.3 GW offshore wind farm, located at Korsnäs off the Finnish west coast and scheduled to be operational in the early 2030s.

----The news is quoted from offshoreWIND.biz By Adrijana Buljan (www.offshorewind.biz)

Note: If you found anything violating your copyright, please contact us, we would remove them as soon as possible.