Green Genius has awarded Nordex a contract to supply turbines for the first phase of its 85MW Jurbarkas wind farm in Lithuania.
The German turbine company will supply 11 of its N163 units for the project, located in Tauragė County, with turbine delivery and installation scheduled to start in early 2024.
The 5.7MW turbines will have 158 metre towers, according to Darius Bieksa, head of wind and hydrogen at Green Genius, which purchased the site in early 2022.
The Lithuanian developer broke ground on the 62MW first phase of the wind farm in March and will start foundation construction in the summer, Bieksa said in an interview with reNEWS.
Jurbarkas will sell around half of its output under a long term power purchase agreement, with the remaining output likely to be sold on the spot market.
Green Genius had to carefully analyse the business case for the wind farm because of “modest” power prices in the region and increased prices for turbines and other materials, Bieksa noted.
“On the one hand electricity prices [in Lithuania] have normalised and on the other hand capex has increased, so optimisation of the project was important,” he added.
Running in the project’s favour were good wind conditions, no tip height restrictions and a cost-effective grid connection, Bieksa said.
In the autumn Green Genius will finalise arrangements for the second phase of the wind farm, under which it expects to add four or five more turbines to take the site to 85MW.
“We have not tendered for turbines yet but expect to have contracts in place by the end of the year,” Bieksa said.