Wind energy has gained huge popularity in recent years in European countries' plans to move towards energy independence and the use of renewable resources. The technology is proven and functioning, and there seems to be enough space for wind farms in Latvia, but there is no consensus on the impact of wind farms on the environment, in particular on the migration of birds and bats.
Biologists are currently developing guidelines to determine where wind farms can and cannot be built so that they do not disturb migratory bird and bat populations and do not have an overall negative impact on the environment.
"The current installed capacity of wind turbines in Latvia is about 140 megawatts. For context, Lithuania [..] has 1400 megawatts installed. So 10 times more, and the Lithuanians are building and planning even more capacity at a very rapid pace. Estonia has about 400 megawatts," said Nāburgs.
He also pointed out that no new wind farms are currently under construction in Latvia. There are a couple of projects that have just completed their environmental impact assessment and construction of one or two wind parks could possibly start within the next year.
"So the gap in the Baltic context is huge and progress is still very slow," said Nāburgs.
The primary existing wind parks are in Kurzeme. The two largest wind farms in Latvia are located near Ventspils, the third largest is in Grobiņa near Liepāja.
The state-owned company Latvenergo AS has committed to build a network of wind power plants on the lands of Latvia's State Forests with a total capacity of at least 800 megawatts by 2030, but the industry as a whole has much broader goals, Nāburgs said. He pointed out that by 2030, Latvia as a whole should build wind farms with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts.
"I am not so optimistic now whether we will be able to do that, given how slowly many processes are moving forward to get building permits. Then there will be challenges to get the financing. We might not reach these targets we have set for ourselves as an industry in 2030, but that target is still around 2,000 megawatts in total," Nāburgs said.
