Estonia: Sonajalg brothers to submit stance re legality of Aidu wind farm

TALLINN – Aidu wind farm developer Eleon Green, owned by brothers Oleg and Andres Sonajalg, is to submit to the Estonian Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority on Tuesday stances with which the brothers will attempt to prove that the construction of the wind farm is legal.

"The developer once again requested an extension of the response deadline. The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority satisfied the developer's request and the new deadline for the submission of stances is September 3. After receiving the views of the developer, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority shall consider the respective positions and decide on the next steps," Anne-Mai Helemae, representative of the watchdog, told BNS.

According to the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, the wind turbines of Eleon Green OU at the Aidu wind farm do not correspond with any known construction project.

An expert assessment of documents carried out by the authority indicates that the two wind turbines erected at the Aidu wind farm do not correspond with any known construction project, are in contradiction with the local government's thematic plan, do not have the compulsory coordination of the Ministry of Defense and they do not have the approval of the Land Board as the representative of the owners.

Kaur Kajak, director general of the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, said at a press conference in June that the authority will give a month for the developer's right to be heard and hopes to reach a mutually satisfactory solution.

According to Andres Sonajalg, all accusations regarding the alleged shortcomings made by the authority will be rejected. 

"The plan for the partial demolition of the wind turbines compiled by the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority was drawn up without hearing the appellant and without objective investigating and analyzing the circumstances. The plan is based solely on the malicious objective of drafting a demolition injunction, not on the goal of identifying the real problem and finding possible solutions, which should be the object of any kind of objective, fair and impartial supervision," it is said in the document submitted to the authority by Eleon Green.

Sonajalg said that, pursuant to the Building Code, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority has no competence at all to deal with this issue and no one has pointed this out so far.

In the document compiled for Eleon Green by the Supremia law office, it is claimed that, according to the Building Code, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority shall exercise national supervision in particular to verify the post-operational safety of the building.

However, supervision of the legality of the construction activity has now begun, with an assessment of the existence, validity and legality of the building permit. According to the wind farm developers, none of these issues fall within the competence of the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority.

The developers said that over 20 million euros' worth of expenses have been made toward the establishment of the Aidu wind farm. "If the whole wind farm cannot be built, the total damage is about a couple of hundred million euros. This damage must be compensated for by the state. Added to that will be a claim for the compensation of a loss of income," Eleon Green said.