The development of two offshore wind arrays off Estonia with a combined capacity of up to 2.16GW have suffered a setback when the Baltic country’s Supreme Court annulled maritime special plans for areas including the projects, Recharge has learned.

The Supreme Court in a surprise move during the summer had revoked the maritime special plans for a zone and north and north-west of the island of Hiiumaa and one in the Bay or Riga, where Nelja Energia and Eesti Energia are developing projects with a capacity of 700MW-1.1GW (Hiiumaa array) and 960MW (Liivi Bay array) each, Tuuliki Kasonen, general manager of the Estonian Wind Power Association said.

The ruling was in an appeal to earlier court rulings that had rejected a case brought up by anti-wind group MTU Hiiu Tuul against wider maritime plans that set out areas for wind energy, as well as offer guidelines for transport, fishery and tourism.

The Supreme Court found that the spatial planning didn’t detail the environmental impact of the planned offshore arrays and their sub-sea cables on the environment sufficiently.

Estonia’s government is currently looking into ways to remedy the situation, and has initiated an overall maritime special plan for all Estonian waters.

“I don’t think this will stop the project, and I don’t think those things aren’t doable,” Kasonen told Recharge. “But the projects need more time now before they are ready.”

The Hiiumaa project last year had reached an agreement with the municipal council of the island that brought it closer to being built.

Also, the small Baltic country is still in talks to get the construction of Hiiumaa financed by another EU member state facing difficulties to reach its own 2020 renewables targets under an EU cooperation mechanism.

Such a cooperation would still be possible even if the array were to be built after 2020, Kasonen explained, as those EU members that didn’t reach their 2020 targets by the deadline, must still strive to reach it little later.

Wind

Plans for up to 2.16GW Estonian offshore suffer court setback