Croatia lines up 150MW wind power auctions this summer
Croatia lines up 150MW wind power auctions this summer | Windpower Monthly
Croatia plans to auction 150MW of wind power capacity as part of a series of renewable energy tenders this summer.
The Balkan state’s energy market operator HROTE launched a public call for tenders this month (12 April), starting a 60-day period in which it will invite developers to apply to participate in a 15-day auction round.
HROTE plans to hold two wind power auctions: a 60MW round for projects larger than 1MW and a 90MW round for projects between 200kW and 18MW, each with a ceiling price of €75.27/MWh.
Developers offering the lowest strike prices would be due to secure 12-year contracts for difference.
Projects would need to be online within four years of winning their contracts.
The two wind power tenders follow Croatia’s first renewable energy auction last year, in which Acciona was the only developer to secure power deals for wind farms.
Croatia currently has just over 1.2GW of operational onshore wind capacity, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.