It is becoming increasingly difficult to rein in the wind business

On August 18, President Egils Levits paid a regional working visit to Džūkste and Tukums municipality. He was also informed of the problems caused by the wind business. © Ilmārs Znotiņš, Valsts prezidenta kanceleja

The government, the Saeima and also the President need to get involved in reining in the wind and OIK businessmen because municipalities are no longer able to cope with the pressure of the so-called green energy.

On the business side, there is a policy of climate panic and the European green course, while citizens no longer have the right to defend themselves, as the court has also opposed the right of society and local communities to determine what environment they want to live in and how much they can suffer because of other people who want to earn at their expense. The interest in planting wind generators all over Latvia is very high, it's mainly foreigners who want to do it because the opportunities in their own countries are limited. They do not want to do this at sea, because in that case there are higher installation costs and lower profits, even though green energy has a higher price. They want to plant the poles on land - taking away land for agriculture and forestry. Replace trees and soil with concrete, steel and fiberglass. Currently, very topical is the project led by the Swedish company Eolus Wind AB, which envisages the installation of 51 wind stations in the territory of Tukums and Dobele municipalities. They will be gigantic 241-meter-high rotating structures that will permanently change the landscape in Dobele and Tukums municipalities. And indirectly - elsewhere as well.

This will be a precedent

The impact of this particular project will be incomparably wider, as it will serve as a precedent for other projects that stand in line for planting wind turbines throughout Latvia, but do not intend to give even a penny of their grand profits to local residents. That is basically the main problem of wind energy in Latvia.

This business has been milking the people of Latvia in the form of OIK for years, significantly increasing the electricity bills of every inhabitant, and wants to continue to do so.

However, it does not want to take any responsibility for the environmental and landscape pollution it causes. They do not want to build roads and finance the improvement of municipalities as compensation for the inconvenience caused. Unlike other types of business, wind energy production does not create new jobs and does not make any contribution to the local economy.

That is why it is so crucial how the lawsuit initiated by Eolus against Tukums municipality council will end. The municipality has decided to appeal against the unfavorable court judgment.

Good news

Neatkarīgā has already reported that “The first instance forbids not wanting wind generators”. The reasoning of the Court is quite tangled, but in the end, it follows that the population has no right not to want wind turbines, because the member states have an obligation to promote the production of renewable energy, and this is more important than the fact that power belongs to the people, according to the Constitution. After the announcement of the judgment, the deputies decided to appeal the judgment at the extraordinary sitting of Tukums municipality council. As the Mayor of Tukums Gundars Važa told Neatkarīgā, the residents have the right not to want wind generators, but the deputies have the right to vote according to their conscience and in accordance with the wishes of their residents. And the benefits to the local community will be greater if the planned economic activity is banned rather than allowed. Thus, the judgment of the first instance, by which the council is instructed to issue an administrative act in favor of Eolus subsidiary SIA Pienava Wind within one month, will not come into force for the time being. And now the contracted lawyers of the municipality will have the opportunity to defend the interests of the residents in the Regional Court.

Bad news

There are also bad news. The first-instance verdict in favor of some millionaires has given a kind of advantage to the project promoters, and now they have taken a new approach to the other side of the project, in Džūkste, which they had already written off after years of fighting with the locals. After the administrative-territorial reform, Dobele municipality has significantly increased both in terms of territory and population. This means that there may be more residents who are not personally affected by the project, and they may be indifferent to the consequences that the construction of the wind farm will have on the neighboring parish. The second Eolus subsidiary, Dobele Wind, has again approached the municipality for construction approval. Therefore, the municipality again asked the opinion of the residents: “Since the autumn of 2018, this project has caused a wide resonance in the society, with more than 10 thousand residents expressing a negative attitude towards it with their signatures. At that time, Dobele municipality, having got acquainted with the opinion of a large part of the population of the region, acknowledged that the society has the right to always express its position and its activity and involvement in the process is very welcome, as it shows that people are not indifferent to their living environment. The municipality also noted that it understands the concerns of the residents and will definitely take their views into account when deciding whether or not to authorize the construction.” Now the opinions of the residents from the now-attached Auce and Tērvete municipalities are especially anticipated. They can be expressed on the municipal website www.dobele.lv.

The industry is sending a hostile signal

There is growing pressure and demagoguery on the part of the industry. In praise of the decision of the court of the first instance, the Wind Energy Association has already issued a statement stating that municipalities should not decide on business in their territory at all. Here is how Andris Vanags, the head of the Latvian Wind Energy Association, sees it: “Upon receiving a positive decision on the Environmental Impact Assessment from the State Environmental Monitoring Bureau, a situation should not arise where the wind farm project is rejected in a municipal political vote without a rational, reasoned, detailed justification. This not only sends the wrong signal to the entire wind energy industry but in general undermines the confidence and desire of local and foreign investors to implement complex and investment-intensive projects in Latvia. It is also very important to raise awareness at a national level of the importance and benefits of wind energy and to dispel the myths that are deeply ingrained in the public consciousness.” However, the justification is very rational in the case of both Tukums and other municipalities. The population is against it.

The president promises to help

It follows from the logic of lobbyist Vanags that one executive office is higher than the municipality, the decision-making body representing the voters, and that is a bluff. However, the wind industry is right in the sense that the importance of wind energy really needs to be talked about at the national level, because at present the ambitions of the industry are not really being reined in and society could be seriously harmed. For example, by significantly changing the Latvian landscape.

That is why Tukums municipality council has turned to President Egils Levits. A discussion on the issue of wind farms took place during the President's visit to Tukums: “Deputies drew attention to the need to develop a compensation mechanism to the residents of the affected area for the deteriorating environment and living conditions. If it is a state policy, if Latvia needs energy independence, then the government should address this issue at the state level. No such normative document has been developed at present. The President and the deputies agreed that the municipality would develop a constructive plan with a description of the problems, which would be submitted to the government with concrete proposals on possible solutions to this situation."

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