Prime minister: Progress made on Baltic region energy security
Friendly countries in the Baltic region can and are cooperating in stepping up the pace of the implementation of wind energy, including off-shore, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) says, with a view to boosting the energy security of the region.
Speaking after the Energy Security Summit in Marienborg, Denmark, Tuesday, Kallas said: "We set out at today's meeting the steps our region will take to increase energy independence and to use renewable energy more widely."
"Climate goals and achieving the green revolution are our long-term goals," Kallas added, according to a government press release.
This was given added impetus by the current conflict in Ukraine and the need to decouple from reliance on Russian energy, she added.
"Russia's aggression in Ukraine has shown that we must move at a faster pace than previously planned to achieve them. We can use the enormous wind energy potential of the Baltic Sea to abandon Russian energy carriers and thus also reduce Russia's income from the sale of energy carriers, which the Kremlin uses to finance its military aggression in Ukraine," the prime minister went on.
"The government has set itself the goal of by 2030 covering 100 percent of our electricity needs via renewable electricity. This will bring us a cleaner environment, lower energy prices, increases security and creates better opportunities for innovation for companies. The joint plans agreed today for the development of the energy network and the establishment of wind farms in the Baltic Sea will help to achieve these goals even faster and more efficiently," she added.
Kallas was joined by the leadership of all other EU member states which have Baltic Sea shorelines, namely Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Denmark, while a joint a declaration confirming their position that since Russia is using energy as a weapon, strengthening the union's renewables and ditching Russian energy carriers as soon as possible is required.
Efforts will be made to increase security and a seven-fold increase in the capacities of offshore wind energy by 2030 is aimed for, the agreement stated, while a more detailed action plan on how to do this and also looking further ahead to 2040 and 2050, in terms of wind energy capacity targets, was included.
This would be much more easily achieved via proper cooperation between countries, economic affairs minister Riina Sikkut (SDE) said, noting that Estonia: "Must ensure a favorable business environment so that wind energy developers are interested in investing here."
The Riigikogu adopted the so-called wind fee law in mid-July, which compensates individuals and municipalities in affected areas and is aimed at speeding the process along, as is planned, simplified permit application procedures and the shortening of deadlines to within a three-year limit.
Renewable energy tenders of at least 1.65 TWh for the next three years.
The planned Estonian-Latvian offshore wind-farm project in the Gulf of Riga, the planned Estlink 3 Estonia-Finland electricity link, and the synchronization of electricity networks with Central Europe were among other large-scale projects mentioned.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Government Office