Colombian offshore wind auction draws Chinese, European interest

PowerChina and China Three Gorges are among nine companies seeking to participate in Colombia's first offshore wind auction. 

Spain's BlueFloat Energy, Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Belgian firms Jan de Nul and DEME also submitted qualification documents ahead of Monday's deadline for expressions of interest. 

Others to present the necessary paperwork were Britain's Dyna Energy, local state-run oil company Ecopetrol and Medellín-based developer Celsia. 

"This stage is one of the most important milestones of this first process as it allows the government to determine which national and/or foreign companies have the [necessary] experience," the mines and energy ministry said in a statement. 

The ministry said the auction would pave the way for 1-3GW of wind power capacity in Caribbean waters off the departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Magdalena and Sucre. 

According to the latest bidding documents, a preliminary list of qualifiers will be published on November 5 while a December 20 cutoff has been set for companies to nominate the geographical boundaries of their projects.

Financial and technical proposals for 30-year lease agreements are due on April 24 next year.

Colombia has emerged as one of Latin America's most promising offshore wind markets following the publication of a long-term sector blueprint in 2022.

The 217-page roadmap, authored by London-based firm Renewables Consulting Group in partnership with the World Bank and the UK government, says Colombia has the potential for 50GW of offshore wind capacity in the western Atlantic basin.

The document forecasts up to 1GW of installed marine wind capacity by 2030, 3GW by 2040 and 9GW by 2050.

Officials have told BNamericas that electricity generated from the projects could be injected into Colombia's power grid via submarine transmission lines or used to produce green hydrogen, both for domestic use and exports.