The Belgian government has opted to delay the tender for a new offshore wind farm less than two months before the submission date.
The tender for a 700MW offshore wind farm in the Princess Elisabeth Zone I will now be pushed back until 2026, resulting in a postponement of over a year and a half when all procedures are considered.
The submission date for the tender was set for August 24, and the announcement of the winners was expected in December 2025. The launch of the tender was as far back as November 2024.
The main reason for the delay was several regulations regarding the tender’s timeline and legal framework, which the country’s energy minister, Mathieu Bihet, believes are “vague and unrealistic”.
The government delayed the tender regardless of 33 citizen cooperatives preparing detailed proposals to invest in the project. They aimed to keep part of the energy transition under local and cooperative control.
SeaCoop CSVO, a Belgian cooperative centred around renewables, said that the delay in the commissioning of the wind farm by a year and a half would increase social costs due to the slowing down of further energy independence and stabilisation of energy costs.
This decision also looks over warnings from grid operator Elia about potential electricity shortages from 2028 onwards. Elia continues with the development of Princess Elisabeth Island, the world’s first artificial energy island, which could see as much as 3.5GW of offshore wind power connected once operational.
