Colombia targets first offshore wind projects

Power generated from first offshore wind plant would be used to produce green ammonia for the local fertiliser sector

Two offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 550MW are at the pre-feasibility stage in Colombia, as part of plans to build 1GW of turbines by 2030.

Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Barranquilla electricity firm APBAQ in March signed an initial agreement for the construction of a 350MW offshore wind farm. The $1bn plant is expected to be ready by 2026. The design stage of the project has begun and will last for approximately two years, and will include the collection of permits, the design of the infrastructure and the feasibility study for connection to the national grid.

Fertilisers company Monomeros, the Colombian subsidiary of Venezuelan state-owned Pequiven, has signed another initial agreement with APBAQ to receive the electricity produced from the site. The firm will use the power to generate green ammonia to ensure nitrogenous fertilisers for the Colombian agriculture sector and reduce dependence on imported grey ammonia produced using natural gas, the firm says.

A smaller offshore wind project with 200MW of capacity is also at the pre-feasibility stage. Spanish company BlueFloat Energy plans to develop the wind farm off the coast of Galerazamba in Bolivar department. The Vientos Alisios plant would include 35 wind turbines, chief executive Carlos Martin says.

The $1bn project aims to start operating in 2027. "The energy generated in this first project will be marketed to the national interconnected system for the consumption of Colombians. We also plan to make private sales of energy later, since offshore wind generation is very constant and allows us to ensure a fairly predictable supply," Martin adds.

Colombia's government on 3 May officially launched its offshore wind roadmap, which states that the country has the potential to install almost 50GW of offshore wind capacity, of which around 27GW would be in shallow water and about 21GW would require floating infrastructure.

Realistic goals?

The roadmap outlines that Colombia could generate 1GW of offshore wind by 2030, 3GW by 2040 and 9GW by 2050 on a cumulative basis under a high-case scenario, which assumes that offshore wind is developed on a commercial scale, including projects with 1GW of capacity. Under a low-case scenario, offshore wind farms could generate 200MW by 2030, 500MW by 2040 and 1.5GW by 2050 on a cumulative basis.

But Colombia will need to expand transmission capacity to achieve its goals. One of the most challenging constraints to commercial-scale offshore wind deployment is the limited availability of high-voltage transmission capacity near the most important wind resource areas — the departments of La Guajira and Magdalena in the far north of the country. Colombia has about 11GW of renewables projects waiting for grid connections.

Offshore wind could bring Colombia more than $27bn in investments and generate 26,000 jobs by 2050, mines and energy minister Diego Mesa says.

The ministry tells Argus that these offshore wind projects will have the normal incentives for renewables projects and can participate in power expansion auctions. "We have seen in the [offshore wind] roadmap that the production factor of these projects is around 70pc," it says.

The ministry also says the inclusion of offshore wind in its electricity matrix will help Colombia move forward towards decarbonisation, as for each MWh of offshore wind power, close to 190kg of CO2 would not be emitted that would otherwise have been released to the atmosphere.