Ignitis Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have won Estonia’s first offshore wind auction, for the development of the Liivi 2 sea area with a capacity of up to 1.4 GW, the parties said today.
The subsidiary of Lithuanian energy company Ignitis Grupe AB (VSE:IGN1L) and the Danish fund manager, through its Growth Markets Fund II, have made the highest bid of EUR 1.7 million (USD 1.8m).
The Liivi 2 area is located northwest of Ruhnu Island, close to the country’s Baltic Sea coast. A wind farm there is expected to become operational post-2030.
Ole Kjems Sorensen, partner in CIP, said the Baltic states are a core market of CIP’s Growth Markets Funds and that the Liivi 2 project could be a key investment in Estonia’s transformation into a long-term European green energy hub.
Darius Maikstenas, chief executive of Ignitis Group, noted that this is the second offshore wind tender secured by Ignitis Renewables in the Baltic states, after an auction in Lithuania.
Estonia’s Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (CPTRA) announced in November it would be holding auctions for two offshore wind areas.
(EUR 1 = USD 1.080)