Lithuania to build huge windmills

From wire reports

Lithuanian and German companies have signed an agreement on the construction of a 10-MW capacity windmill in the Vistytis area near the Kaliningrad border that will be the largest one in the Baltic countries by the end of next year.

The German group WIP Corp. Baltic States will build the windmill that will reportedly consist of five facilities meeting European requirements and a capacity of 2 MW per unit, the Germany embassy in Lithuania said.

Total investments in the project will amount to approximately 11 million euros.

"The windmill, which will be the largest and most powerful in such category in the Baltic countries, as a pilot project would make the way for German companies to the Lithuanian renewable energy market," the embassy said in a report.

"At the same time it will make an important contribution to the independent provision of Lithuania with energy."

Lithuanian Vejo Jega Co. and the German group WIP Corp. Baltic States signed the deal. Vice Governor of Germany's Mecklenburg-Vorpomern state Wolfgang Methling and Lithuanian Economy Minister Petras Cesna took part in this ceremony.

Both officials also opened the business contact exchange between Lithuania and the German state. Twenty-five executives from 23 Mecklenburg-Vorpomern companies, representing port economy, technologies, machine-building and food industry, came to Vilnius together with Methling on a mission of searching new business contacts.

Viktoras Jasinskas, managing director of Vejo Jega, which will operate the windmill, expressed concern over Lithuania's energy pricing policy, saying it was unattractive for the planned project.

Should the wind power price remain at 22 centas (0.06 euros) per kilowatt hour, investments in the Vistytis windmill will break even only after 10 - 11 years.

"In Latvia the wind power price is 35 centas per kilowatt hour, therefore, they already have 30 such plants," Jasinskas said.

At the moment Lithuania is running just two private windmills in northern Skuodas and southern Lazdijai districts, but many companies are interested in building windmills throughout the country.

In terms of location, Jasinskas said the chosen place for the windmill was very good - on hills 270 to 280 meters above the sea level, near a lake. The wind speed in this area is estimated at 6.8 meters per second, which is viewed as sufficient for normal operation of a windmill.

The new windmill is presently in the planning stage, and construction is slated to begin in spring. Jasinskas said the partners in the project would use 10 percent - 15 percent of their own funds, while credits and total investment portfolio would make up the rest.