Tootsi wind farm with a production capacity of 74 MW, so far owned by Eesti Energia, has gone through the entire planning process, the necessary connections have been ensured, and building permits are in place.
Enefit Green’s Sopi wind farm development with a capacity of 160 MW is located in the same area. This project, too, has passed the planning phase.
Enefit Green is continuing to prepare the Final Investment Decisions (FID) for both projects simultaneously and has issued tenders to find a builder and a wind turbine manufacturer.
According to Lauri Ulm, Head of Wind Energy at Enefit Green, the simultaneous construction in Tootsi and Sopi will create the most powerful and modern wind energy production site in Estonia, taking advantage of the area of a deplered peat mine in Põhja-Pärnumaa. “38 wind turbines are planned for these wind farms to produce almost as much electricity as is currently produced from the wind in all of Estonia. We will also continue working to establish a solar park in the area and further increase the production of renewable energy,” Ulm said.
According to Hando Sutter, CEO of Eesti Energia and Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Enefit Green, the key to both the energy crisis and the green revolution is the rapid increase in renewable energy production volumes. “The more we can produce renewable electricity, the less we have to use the more expensive energy production based on fossil fuels. The renewable energy producer Enefit Green, part of the group of companies of Eesti Energia, will quadruple its wind and solar energy production capacity in the coming years with the Tootsi and Sopi projects playing an important role in achieving the energy goals of both the company and the Estonian state,” Sutter said.
The wind farms in Tootsi and Sopi are going to generate approximately 700 GWh/y of electricity, covering the annual electricity consumption of more than 200 000 households. In 2021, all wind farms in Estonia produced a total of 730 GWh of electricity.
The cost of acquiring the wind farm was €26.9 million.