Swedish company planning large offshore wind farm northwest of Saaremaa island

  • 2022-08-01
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN – The Swedish company Deep Wind Offshore is planning to establish a wind farm with a total capacity of approximately 6,000 megawatts in the Swedish exclusive economic zone northwest of the Estonian island of Saaremaa.

The wind farm would have a maximum of 300 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 20 megawatts.

According to Erik Segersall's project, the future location of the wind farm, planned across nearly 1,098 square meters, is 32 kilometers northeast of the Swedish island of Gotska Sandon. The wind farm is about 120 kilometers from the northwestern coast of Saaremaa.

Kaupo Heinma, deputy secretary general of the Ministry of the Environment, asked the Saaremaa rural municipality government whether Estonia should participate in the cross-border environmental impact assessment procedure of the offshore wind farm project and what significant adverse cross-border environmental impact could be caused to Estonia, so that the developer can take this into account when preparing environmental impact assessment materials.

The rural municipality of Saaremaa did not consider Estonia's participation in the cross-border environmental impact assessment procedure to be important. "Participation could be important only for the relevant specialists in order to gain experience and knowledge. In the current situation, international cooperation in the field of energy is necessary," Bert Holm, head of the environmental department of the Saaremaa rural municipality government, said.