Utilitas wants to establish almost 300 wind turbines in Gulf of Riga
The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) has initiated a building permit procurement for the environmental impact assessment energy concern Utilitas' application to establish an offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Riga. The company is planning to erect just short of 300 wind turbines there.
The TTJA announced that, according to the application, Utilitas wind farm, which consists of 299 windmills, with a distance in between each turbine of around one kilometer. In respect of the purpose of the use of construction, the applicant has indicated the production of electricity and hydrogen through offshore wind farms.
The capacity of the planned turbines is up to €5,800 MW. The initial area under construction is 150,000 sq. m., with a maximum applied public water area of 301 million sq. m.
Utilitas must submit an environmental impact assessment program to TTJA to monitor the compliance of the requirements in 18 months and the studies required in the course of the environmental impact assessment must be carried out within five years of the approval of the environmental impact assessment program.
In mid-December, ERR wrote that the oil shale to energy company Eesti Energia and the energy group Utilitas are planning wind farms in the Gulf of Riga next to each other. The companies have started cooperating to connect the planned wind farms to the mainland.
Eesti Energia and Utilitas submitted a joint application for combining the previous national special plans and strategic environmental impact assessments of cable connections at sea and on land.
Companies justify the need for a joint special plan with the need for cooperation. "The planned offshore wind farms in Saaremaa are located next to Eesti Energia's planned offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Riga, and it is in the interests of both Eesti Energia and Utilitas to establish a connection of offshore wind farms to the transmission grid," the application stated.
Utilitas and Eesti Energia's national special planning area is approximately 4,600 sq. km, with the aim of establishing a connection of offshore wind farms to grid distributor Elering's transmission network.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino