One of the company's first wind farms to be operational will be located in Limbaži. All the necessary consultations and studies are currently underway and, in theory, construction work should start in about two years' time, so that the first wind turbines will be generating electricity in 2028.
The planned park and others will be located in forests. The generators will be high up in the air to ensure that the wind reaches the turbines. They will be about 300 meters high.
"We are building wind farms inside Latvia. And we have to take into account that a certain wind speed and strength has to be achieved for the turbine to be operational and economically viable," explains Jānis Urtāns, Chairman of the Board of Latvian Wind Park.
The total number of turbines could reach around 120. The planned turbines will not only be incomparably taller than those currently installed in Latvia, but also much more powerful. The company originally planned to build a total of eight different wind farms. One, in the eastern part of the country, is unlikely to go ahead because the Ministry of Defence has banned the construction of wind farms in certain areas of the country due to security concerns. Public consultations with local authorities are ongoing.
"There are questions about how it is, how it will be in the future, whether it is really necessary to be so close or further away. These are questions from the residents whose buildings it will be near," said Dagnis Straubergs (LRA), chairman of the Limbaži municipal council.
The municipality recognizes that the planned compensation of local residents for wind farms could help with this issue. However, not everyone will be enthusiastic about the projects - those who object now will most likely continue to do so even after the announcement of such compensation, predicts the chairman of the Ventspils municipal council. The ministry responsible for energy notes that the plan to build wind farms in the forest is positive. If there is land, why not use it?
"In fact, in all countries where the proportion of forests is large enough to allow wind power plants, options are also being considered for locating wind power plants in forests. This includes Finland and Sweden, for example, where the proportion of forests is already over 60%. One of the better-known examples is in Germany, where statistics show that more than 9% of all wind farms are now located in forest areas," explained Līga Rozentāle, Deputy State Secretary for Energy Policy at the Ministry of Climate and Energy.
LVP notes that large forest areas will not need to be cleared for the construction of the parks. In some cases, roads will have to be widened to bring the giant turbines into the forest, but in this case the existing infrastructure of Latvian State Forests will help. Also, each turbine will need about one hectare of land, where trees will most likely have to be cut down.
