Detail – Energy Country Profile

Estonia and Latvia have chosen the places in their respective regions of the Baltic Sea where their combined offshore wind energy project, ELWIND, will be constructed.

Between 700 MW and 1,000 MW will be able to be produced by the ELWIND wind farm. The project development rights tender is slated to take place in 2026. The project is anticipated to start building in 2028 and finish as early as 2030.

The Latvian Ministry of Economy, the Center for Environmental Investments, the Latvian Investment and Development Agency, and the Latvian grid operator Augstsprieguma tkls all work together to develop ELWIND (AST).

The Center for Environmental Investments will apply to the Consumer Protection and Technical Supervision Agency (TTJA) to issue a building permit for the joint project's maritime area in Estonia as the next step in the project's development.

Using the development permission process, TTJA will start an EIA, during which KIK will do the required research.

In December 2019, Latvia and Estonia began discussions to develop ELWIND. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a 1 GW offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Riga was signed by the governments of the two nations a year later.

Elering and AST, the two nations' transmission system operators (TSOs), teamed up once more in 2021 to find the ideal offshore and onshore routes and grid solutions. Elering also disclosed its ambitions for a substantial offshore grid connection in the Baltic Sea, with ELWIND serving as the initial phase in the same year.

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