Baltic 1 wind farm
The Baltic countries of Estonia and Latvia are officially considering the development of a joint offshore wind project to meet the EU's climate goals and to increase their energy security, local media has reported.
The joint project would have a total installed capacity of 1 GW and would be developed by Eesti Energia, the Estonian state-operated energy company. When finished, it will provide the Latvian and Estonian national grids with another low carbon energy source, in line EU climate goals.
Estonia currently relies on burning oil shale for its energy production and is among Europe's dirtiest at around 500 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of power produced. Latvia's energy production has an emissions tag of around 200 grams of CO2 per kWh.
“I am very pleased that we have finally succeeded in reaching active co-operation between Latvia and Estonia in developing a common renewable energy source,” Latvian Economics Minister Ralfs Nemiro told ERR after meeting his Estonian counterpart Taavi Aas.
Offshore wind is the least intermittent renewable source of energy with capacity factor – meaning the percentage of time in which energy is produced from an installation – at around 50%. By comparison, the capacity factor for onshore wind is at around 30%. It drops to below 20% for solar installations.
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