Utilitas Wind’s Saare-Liivi offshore wind farm in Estonia has received approval for its environmental impact assessment (EIA) programme.
The EIA programme outlines the expected significant impacts of the planned activities, the assessment of these impacts, and the studies necessary to be carried out.
As part of the EIA report, impacts on nature, cultural heritage, social and economic environment, shipping, and air traffic are assessed and visualisations are carried out.
Utilitas Wind plans to move forward with the development with the aim of completing the Saare-Liivi offshore wind farm by 2028.
“During the compilation of Saare-Liivi offshore wind farm EIA programme, all involved authorities cooperated effectively, which resulted in the approval of the program in less than one year,” said Kristiina Nauts, Head of Planning and Environmental Impact Assessment at Utilitas Wind.
“This is an exceptionally fast outcome in Estonia. We started all the environmental studies outlined in the decision to initiate the superficies licence immediately, so we were already able to provide both the public and decision-makers with more precise information regarding the scope of the studies. In addition, we saved at least a year in the project development time.”