Colombia's offshore wind tender kicks off, nine firms in 1st stage race

Nine companies have submitted their pre-qualification applications in the first stage of Colombia’s offshore wind lease tender, which will offer sea areas for some 1 GW to 3 GW, the Colombian mining and energy ministry said on Tuesday.

Two of the hopeful bidders are Colombian -- oil major Ecopetrol and power company Celsia. The rest are international companies, some with significant pedigree in the offshore wind sector: Spain’s BlueFloat Energy, Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), Belgium’s Jan de Nul and DEME, China’s PowerChina and China Three Gorges Corporation, and UK’s Dyna Energy.

Latin America’s first tender for offshore wind leases is lead by Colombia’s national hydrocarbons agency ANH, which has been tasked with evaluating and selecting the bidders, national maritime authority DIMAR and the mining and energy ministry.

The final list of qualified bidders is expected to be available by December 2024. The selected companies will submit their bids in the first half of 2025, the ministry said.

Winners will be awarded permits to develop their wind projects in shallow and deep sea areas off the coasts of the departments of Atlantico, Bolivar, southern Magdalena and northern Sucre.

As stated in Colombia’s offshore wind roadmap, the country boasts areas totalling 12,200 square kilometres (4,710 sq miles) that can be used for turbine installations. Its offshore wind potential is estimated at 50 GW, and in a high scenario, Colombia could have 1 GW of offshore wind farms by as early as 2030, and up to 9 GW by 2050.

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