Lithuania behind on wind-watts

  • 2005-04-27
  • From wire reports
VILNIUS - Lithuania is lagging behind in its wind-power development plans and may face sanctions for failing to comply, the daily Lietuvos Zinios reported last week.

In order to comply with EU requirements, the country must increase production of energy from wind and water to 7 percent by 2010. Though local businesses have been actively bidding for wind power generation projects, they have not rushed to build the facilities.

The Economy Ministry had planned that more than 10 wind power plants with an aggregate capacity of 33 megawatts would be built in 2004, and that twice as many would start operating in 2005.

Today, however, there are only a few wind power facilities with a total capacity of less than a megawatt.

Green energy, mostly generated by hydro power plants, currently accounts for as little as 3.5 percent of Lithuania's energy output.