|
A public hearing for the proposal of the areas dedicated to installing offshore electricity renewable generation plants opened last January 27th (Order 1396-C/2023). It follows the Portuguese government's recent announcement that an auction for offshore wind energy production would be launched by the end of September. The proposal (a Portuguese language version can be found here) subject to public hearing until March 10th, comprises the following areas: Largo de Leixões, Figueira da Foz, Ericeira and Sintra-Cascais, Sines and Viana do Castelo (through an extension of the existing pilot area). These territories comprise 3,393.44 km2 of national maritime space, occupying roughly 5.9% of the space between the coast and the territorial sea's outer boundary and 0.71% of the EEZ, respectively. The locations in depth from around 75 meters to 200 meters and hence call for the construction of floating structures fastened to the seabed, have a total installable power of 10 GW and are as follows:
The locations with a maximum depth of 50 meters – allowing the installation of fixed structures on the seabed – add up to an installable power of roughly 1 GW: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Depths up to 50m | ||
| PROPOSED AREAS | AREAS (KM2) | POWER (GW) |
| Matosinhos | 180,90 | 0,995 |
| Port of Sines jurisdiction area | 9,64 | 0,005 |
| Total | 200,54 | 1 |
|
These areas will be relevant for the Offshore Renewable Energy Allocation Plan and they will be integrated into the National Maritime Spatial Planning Situation Plan (PSOEM), which is being drafted in accordance with Order 12020/2021 of the 7th of December. These are the onshore connection points to the national grid (RNT) highlighted in the report:
|
Additionally, on January 27th, Notice 1976-A/2023 extended for an additional 10 days the deadline to comment on the proposed order defining the technological free zone for renewable energies with maritime origin or placement off the coast of Viana do Castelo.