The procurement contact named on the official notice.

The submission route named on the official notice.

***PRE-MARKET ENGAGEMENT EXERCISE*** ***PLEASE NOTE: The Pre-Market Engagement Questionnaire can be accessed in the Cft Documents area*** The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs through the Forest Service presents this opportunity for wind energy developers to engage in the assessment of forest areas on its estate, which are of interest to the sector for future wind energy generation.

This opportunity recognises the potential for Forest Service forests to contribute to meeting the requirement for 80 per cent electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2030, as set out in the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

This exercise aims to gather information from the wind energy sector on the forest areas that have the greatest potential to contribute to wind energy generation and should be considered for development.

Responses from the wind energy sector will inform the Forest Service approach to the market opportunity and any subsequent, competitive procurement processes.

This exercise is being used to determine the potential for any possible future contracts and their estimated value.

Input from the renewable energy sector will provide a service to Forest Service in order to inform an approach to any subsequent go to market opportunity.

This market sounding does not guarantee the commencement of a commercial competition resulting in monetary income or future outlay. **PLEASE NOTE: ALL COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES MUST BE SUBMITTED VIA THE MESSAGING FUNCTION on eTendersNI, BEFORE 15:00 on the date specified below under 'Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate'.