Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Investments, Mergers and take-overs

The collaboration with Van Oord allows Saare Wind Energy to intensify the development process for this offshore wind farm, as financial support and knowledge are combined. Saare Wind Energy has extensive knowledge of local conditions and the environmental impact assessment. Van Oord, being an experienced offshore wind contractor, has been involved in several early developments of offshore wind farms, Van Oord said.

In January 2020, Saare Wind Energy and Van Oord agreed to cooperate on the Saaremaa offshore wind farm project. Veiko Vali, member of the management board of Saare Wind Energy, told Postimees that Van Oord had been planning to acquire a stake in the local company already at that time.

As a result of negotiations, the final stake ended up being 30%. Vali said that, among other things, the transaction gives Van Oord the confidence to continue investing in the major project.

The company Saare Wind Energy OU has been working since 2015 on a plan to establish an offshore wind farm off the coast of Saaremaa. However, citing a potential threat to national security, the Estonian government decided in April 2019 to refuse to initiate the procedure for a building permit for the establishment of the offshore wind farm.

However, in May this year, the government approved an order to initiate the procedure for a building permit for the offshore wind farm and an environmental impact assessment.

According to the application, an offshore wind farm with 100 wind turbines is planned 10-27 kilometers from the west coast of Saaremaa and the capacity of the offshore wind turbines is planned to be 6 megawatts.

Saare Wind Energy expects the wind farm to see an annual electricity production of 2,800 gigawatt-hours.