First two sites were subject to several competing applications for establishing offshore wind farms in Estonia

28 August was the deadline for submitting competing applications for the establishment of offshore wind farms on the Liivi 1 and Liivi 2 sites. Six competing applications were submitted for both sites, with the initial application bringing the total to seven.

For the offshore areas, Liivi Offshore OÜ, Aker Offshore Wind Europe GmbH, Viru Keemia Grupp AS, Sunly Wind OÜ, Edel Offshore Wind OÜ and the joint applicant UAB “Ignitis Renewables Projektai 6” and CI NMF Estonia Sea I HoldCo Coöperatief U submitted their own competing application. Together with the building permit applications of OÜ Utilitas Wind, submitted on 29.04.2020 and last updated on 16.06.2023, a total of seven developers are competing for the Liivi 1 and Liivi 2 sites.

TTJA (The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority in Estonia) will verify the compliance of all submitted competing applications with the Building Code and then forward them to relevant state authorities for an opinion. After receiving feedback from national authorities, TTJA will assess competing applications in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the Act. Applications that meet the requirements will be put out to tender no later than 60 days after the results of the evaluation of applications have been confirmed. The first auction is expected to take place in November or December this year. Applications that do not meet the requirements will be rejected by Authority.

The starting price of the auction for the utilizing a public water body to build a wind farm is €15 000 per square kilometre. The Liivi 1 site is approximately 77 km² and has a starting price of approximately € 1 155 000, the Liivi 2 site is approximately 115 km² and has a starting price of approximately € 1 725 000. The winner of the auction will be the highest bidder who has paid the highest bid and their application will be gain a building permit and environmental impact assessment procedure within 90 days of the announcement of the winner.

Once the procedure has been launched, the applicant will prepare an EIA programme with a team of experts, followed by studies and an EIA report. The licensing procedure will be concluded by a decision of TTJA on granting the building permit.

Source: ttja.ee