News

15 November 2018

Wind parks - examples and good practices: Thematic Workshop in Riga, Latvia

The Latvian project partners LEIF and IPE organised a workshop on "Wind parks - examples and good practices" on 14 November in Riga. The meeting focused on the good practice examples for wind energy developments in Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain and the Baltic States, identified in the first months of the WinWind project. The examples show options for the fair distribution of income between local communities and owners of wind farms, the involvement of municipalities and local communities in the planning process, design and operation of wind parks, and the development of financial participation models for citizens and local communities.

The meeting was joined by Michael Krug from the Free University of Berlin, who supplied in-depth information on the German wind energy sector. He presented amongst others on the spatial planning mechanism of the state of Brandenburg, that devotes 2% of the federal land to the development of wind energy by 2030;  and the Quality Label "Partner for the Fair Wind Energy" endorsed by the state of Thuringia.

Gaidis Klāvs from IPE presented on wind energy in the context of the 2030 goals of the Latvian national energy and climate policy, emphasizing that the use of renewable energy is not an end in itself but a means of achieving broader energy and/or climate policy objectives.
 
The closing of the meeting was devoted to the viewing of initiatives in Latvia. Maija Bumbiere compared the joint and differentiated social acceptance issues of the Alsunga wind park and the planned wind parks in the Dobele and Tukums counties, while Oskars Beikulis from SIA Elle presented on the characteristics of planned wind parks and provided detailed answers to the questions that arose mainly from the public in the context of the environmental impact assessment.