Renewable Energy in Lithuania - Outlook 2020

published on 13th February 2020

The year 2020 will be a very exciting one for the renewable energy sector in Lithuania. In January the winners of the first 0,3 TWh yearly feed-in quota auction will be announced. The preliminary results show, that there are 3 bidders, who offer to produce renewable electricity with 0 Eur/MWh state subsidy, which is revolutionary. This means that the renewable sector development has reached such a stage, where it can freely coexist on the free energy market without state support. This further shows, that the main competition will be amongst renewable energy producers to secure the grid capacities, which are currently lacking far behind the producer demand. The main focus therefore will be on securing the most suitable production locations.

The first auction should be seen as a pilot project both for the state authorities as for the energy producers. After the dust will settle, the second auction for a much higher yearly quota of 0,7 TWh shall be announced in mid-2020. It will be interesting to observe which technology - wind, solar, biogas or cogeneration energy – will have the upper hand in this auction. In any case the renewable energy market in Lithuania shows Its maturity and openness to investment.

The rise of renewable energy in the Lithuanian energy mix will be also strongly supported by the rapid growth of so called “producing consumers”, who mainly install PV-capacities ranging from 1 kW to 10 kW and feed the electricity produced into the grid to later cover their household needs. The Lithuanian Energy Ministry has released a support scheme which allows consumers to apply for a one-time compensation of 323 EUR per installed kW. This is expected to increase the current number of producing consumers of 3400 by several times. The solar boom is back in the Lithuanian market, however this time threatening merely the conventional energy producers, and bringing an environmentally friendly outlook to the future.