Estonia Grants First Ever Building Permit For An Offshore Wind Farm

Estonia approved a drafting bill that granted the first building permit to construct an offshore wind farm.

It has been granted to Saare Wind Energy to develop a project in the Estonian part of the Baltic Sea.

The offshore wind farm would have around 100 wind turbines and would produce 1.4 GW of electricity.

The farm, expected to become operational in the 2030s, will also involve building a transmission system with a connection to the onshore grid in Estonia.

The Saaremaa project is the first offshore wind farm to get a building permit in Estonia and is a vital step towards the production of clean energy in the country, said Jaanus Uiga, Undersecretary for Energy and Mineral Resources at the Ministry of Climate.

The permit is valid for 50 years and enables the developer to go ahead to the next approval levels, like applying for a building permit from the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority and an environmental permit for special water use from the Environmental Board.

The Ministry has said that this does not mean the project will get support from the state. Also, the ministry has initiated building permit processes for 11 offshore wind farms submitted by OÜ Utilitas Wind, Five Wind Energy OÜ, Tuuletraal OÜ, UAB “Ignitis renewables projektai 6,” Liivi Offshore OÜ, the Environmental Investment Center Foundation and Tuul Energy OÜ.

Estonia wants to take care of the licensing of the new offshore wind areas, like the Saare 7 site, west of the island of Saaremaa. The auction of this area will be in June, per reports.