European Energy will need to assess plants' environmental impact with Latvians – ministry

2024-02-27
BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - European Energy, a Danish renewable energy company, will have to carry out an environmental impact assessment of its planned methanol and green hydrogen plant in Lithuania's Kretinga or Akmene District with the participation of Latvia's authorities and public, a spokeswoman for Lithuania's Environment Ministry says.

"The Environmental Protection Agency, as the responsible authority, has informed us about these projects because they are being developed close to the border with Latvia. In both cases, the Environment Ministry has concluded that these projects will also be subject to cross-border environmental impact assessment procedures," Beata Vilimaite-Silobritiene of the Environment Ministry, told a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet on Tuesday.

"Since we are taking about the storage of chemicals, and the quantities are not small, the distances in one case are about five kilometers (to the border with Latvia - BNS) and a bit more than seven km in the other case,(...) so we will give the opportunity to the Latvian public and the Latvian authorities to participate," she said.

Tadeusas Konkovskis, head of European Energy's office in Lithuania, has confirmed to BNS that Nomine Consult, the Lithuanian company tasked to prepare EIA documents for the planned project, had been notified that the procedures would have to be carried out jointly with the Latvian side.

"This is a natural practice because of the distance to the border (with Latvia - BNS)," he told BNS.

European Energy has recently announced plans to invest around 400 million euros in a methanol and green hydrogen plant in Lithuania and is still choosing a site in Kretinga and Akmene Districts, with the final decision on the location expected in 2025 and the launch of operations planned in 2028. According to the company, it will be the most powerful plant of this kind in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

However, communities in the potential sites are concerned about the future project.