Lithuania will allow negative bidding in its inaugural offshore wind auction in 2023, according to the country’s vice energy minister.
Daiva Garbaliauskaite (pictured) told delegates at the WindEurope 2022 conference in Bilbao that Lithuania’s auction model would be “a classic CfD with the possibility of zero subsidies from the state as well”.
Asked to elaborate, the vice minister said that if multiple developers placed zero subsidy bids then they could “provide several proposals and bid negative”.
“That’s extra money for the state,” she said.
Garbaliauskaite defended the move, arguing the system would promote the best prices for Lithuanian consumers.
Ocean Winds chief operating officer Grzegorz Gorski, who was speaking as part of the same panel discussion on how to increase offshore wind capacity, told delegates that his company planned to bid in the auction regardless of the auction model.
Ocean Winds partnered with Lithuanian energy company Ignitis Group to develop up to 700MW of offshore wind projects in the country last year.
Garbaliauskaite added that Lithuania’s supply chain is well placed ahead of the auction with the “necessary technical measurements” taken at the country’s Klaipeda port as a base for offshore wind deployment.