Estonia Starts Permitting Process for Enefit’s 2 GW Offshore Wind Duo

Estonian Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (CPTRA) has initiated the permitting process for a 2 GW offshore wind project in the Gulf of Riga, developed by Liivi Offshore, a project company owned by Enefit Green.

As reported throughout the past few years, Enefit Green has been developing the 1 GW Liivi offshore wind farm after taking over the project from its parent company Eesti Energia in 2023 and has recently invited tenders for geotechnical surveys and a metocean campaign.

Eesti Energia has filed applications with the government for two projects south of Kihnu Island with plans to install up to 140 wind turbines with a nominal capacity of 20 MW per unit.

The CPTRA has decided to merge the permitting procedures for Eesti Energia’s applications from 2021. According to the authority, the potential capacity of the merged Liivi offshore wind farm is up to 2,010 MW.

After the construction permit procedure and the start of the environmental impact assessment (EIA), Enefit can begin to prepare an EIA programme and must submit the programme to CPTRA within 18 months and an EIA report within 24 months of the decision the EIA programme meets the requirements.

A construction permit can be issued after the EIA report has been accepted so the developer can start applying for the permit after the design work has been completed.

Estonia’s Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority has so far selected four winners through the country’s offshore wind auctions and issued nine decisions to initiate the permitting procedure and environmental impact assessment.