Estonia, Latvia looking to pinpoint sites for their joint 1 GW offshore wind project

Estonian and Latvian governments have opened a tender looking for services that will lead them towards identifying two most suitable areas for their joint offshore wind development.

Namely, Environmental Investment Centre (EIC), authorised by the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, has opened a tender for a prefeasibility study for site selection for the Estonian-Latvian offshore renewable energy project called ELWIND, whose development the two countries announced a year ago.

The objective of the study is to assess and model the four preselected development sites and propose two best locations for wind farm construction, one off Estonia and one off Latvia.

The criteria according to which the sites will be evaluated include indicators suitable for efficient energy production, construction and maintenance costs of a wind farm, grid connection cost, and location with least marine spatial conflicts.

The tender for the prefeasibility study remains open until 10:00 a.m. on 6 August.

The ELWIND project is planned to have a total installed capacity of between 700 MW and 1 GW, which equals to 3+ TWh of electricity annually.

Grid connection is planned as part of the cross-country concept and, after all necessary studies are carried out and a license of superficies is granted, the governments will launch an auction to find a developer and operator for the wind project, which is planned to be up and running by 2030.