In September 2020, the Minister for Economics of Latvia and the Estonian Minister of Economy and Infrastructure signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the joint project of an offshore wind farm for energy production from renewable energy sources. The project was dubbed Estonia-Latvia WIND, or ELWIND in short. ELWIND project is an Estonian-Latvian joint hybrid renewable energy project concept in the Baltic Sea. The total capacity of the planned offshore wind park is 700 – 1000 MW, which will provide over 3 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually. The ELWIND project is planned to be operational in 2030.
Hendrikson & Ko, in collaboration with Pondera Consulting from the Netherlands, carried out a pre-feasibility study on the pre-selected areas of the Baltic Sea Wind Farm. The main purpose of this study was to assess the pre-selected areas and point out the best location for wind farms in the combined Estonian Latvian maritime areas. Our team assessed and modelled several pre-selected offshore wind park development sites (4 sites, each ca 200km2, assuming the capacity density of 5-8 MW/km2) in the Baltic Sea within the Estonian and Latvian territorial waters and their exclusive economic zones.
Suitable locations for ELWIND wind farms were carefully selected considering a wide range of criteria. These include physical and environmental protection conditions, economic and technological requirements, as well as logistical and national defense considerations.