The cornerstone of the new €60 million nine-turbine Utilitas wind farm at Saarde in Pärnu County was laid on Wednesday, "Aktuaalne kaamera" (AK) reported.

Priit Koit, head of the utility and energy company Utilitas Group, said production will be more efficient the higher the turbine is placed.

"Efficient generation means that it works for more hours and ultimately the cost of the energy produced is as cheap as possible. The height of the tower is 155 meters, the length of the blade is 75 meters," he told AK.

Construction company Verston, which is building the wind farm, has plenty of experience in the field.

"The last time wind turbines and wind farms were being built across Estonia, Verston was involved in the construction of quite a few wind farms. As no wind farm has been built in Estonia for about 10 years, we have kept our hands busy elsewhere in the meantime. We were involved in the construction of the largest wind farm in Latvia with the same contractor," said Veiko Veskimäe, board chairman, told AK.

Construction is proceeding quickly and it is hoped the park can start selling energy to the grid by next summer. When it is completed it will be Estonia's most powerful wind farm, Utilitas has said.

Koit said it will be able to produce 135,000 MWh of electricity each year which is enough to cover the annual needs of approximately 40,000 households.

Discussions about building the wind farm at Saarde started in 2016.

By 2030, all of Estonia's electricity consumption must be produced by renewables. Utilitas has committed to building another offshore wind farm with a completion date of 2028.

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