Wind

Colombia scopes out flagship offshore wind lease auction with load-centre led maritime plan

Resolution issued ahead of leftist President Gustavo Petro taking office details first allocation round off Atlántico and Bolivar departments as well as off Caribbean coast's Barranquilla and Cartagena

Boca Grande beach in Cartagena, a major load centre in Colombia's Bolivar department
Boca Grande beach in Cartagena, a major load centre in Colombia's Bolivar departmentFoto: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images/Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Colombia’s outgoing government before has issued an offshore wind resolution that sets out the competitive process for the country’s first ‘temporary occupation permits’, a type of lease auction for maritime zones, framing possible future development of the South American play.

The resolution, made in handing over the administration to incoming leftist president Gustavo Petro, provides details on a first allocation round for two large areas off the departments of Atlántico and Bolivar, Mark Leybourne, offshore wind programme lead at the World Bank, said in a LinkedIn post.
More detailed information from Colombia’s mines & energy ministry could not immediately be accessed by Recharge as the ministry’s website was down, possible due to the change in the South American country’s administration, so it was not entirely clear whether the new government will pursue the same policies regarding wind at sea as its right-wing predecessor.
Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, took office on Sunday, after appointing Irene Velez as new mines and energy minister on Saturday, a researcher with a doctorate in political geography, who according to the Reuters news agency is opposed to fracking and new oil contracts and in favour of moving Colombia faster towards renewable energy.
The previous government with the help of the World Bank had issued a first offshore wind road map earlier this year that concluded that some 50GW of offshore wind power could be harnessed off Colombia, already considering environmental, social and technical constraints.

While the best areas for offshore wind are in the extremely windy eastern regions of Guajira and Magdalena, the former government didn’t consider those for a first allocation around, due to serious transmission bottlenecks.

It opted instead for the Atlántico and Bolivar departments further west, but also on the Caribbean coast, which “are in the vicinity of Barranquilla and Cartagena, meaning that onshore transmission will be less of an issue than for projects in La Guajira”, Leybourne noted.

Both Barranquilla and the historic and resort city of Cartagena are also major load-centres.

Leybourne noted, however, that the resolution passed last week only covers a process similar to a lease auction, but “does not cover the issue of cost of power and off-takers/purchasers, and the competitive process described by it is not a process for procuring power”.

The competitive process zone stretches across more than 1,100km2, and seems to include an area, where floating wind pioneer BlueFloat Energy is developing its Vientos Alisios project that has a potential for up to 5.2GW in capacity.

The developer earlier this year has been granted pre-feasibility status for the project, and secured a 200MW grid connection from transmission system operator UPME.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) also plans to build a 350MW project off Barranquilla, the city’s mayor had announced via social media earlier this year.
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Published 8 August 2022, 10:09Updated 8 August 2022, 11:40
AmericasColombiaPolicyOffshore windWorld Bank