Municipalities and residents near wind turbines could receive compensation / Article

In order to ensure that everyone – both park developers and residents living near the stations – would benefit directly from wind energy production, it is planned to determine the compensation that wind turbine installers must pay annually. Half of the amount goes to local residents, half to the municipality.

“This is a very important step, because it is currently the central issue, why municipalities are not really enthusiastic and the citizens read it,” says Toms Nāburgs, head of the Latvian Wind Association.

The Minister of Climate and Energy Kaspars Melnis (Union of Greens and Farmers) also agrees: “It is the answer to people’s question, what will we have when those wind generators are near us. Therefore, the negotiations were quite difficult both with the municipalities and with the wind generator project developers.”

Namely, in the negotiations, municipalities wanted higher compensations, while businessmen defended their interests.

The compromise reached by the parties: municipalities could receive 2,500 euros per year for each megawatt installed on their land.

The amount is fixed and does not depend on how much electricity the wind farm produces. About 13 municipalities have expressed their interest in introducing such compensations. And such payments could be introduced directly at them, and not at the national level, explains the Union of Local Governments of Latvia.

Both municipalities and the industry recognize that the payments could help Latvia finally achieve the necessary “breakthrough” in the wind industry. Foreign experts are of the same opinion – both the head of the European Wind Energy Association and the director general of the Danish Energy Agency, whose country ranks first in the world in terms of the proportion of solar and wind energy in total energy consumption and where such a principle of compensation for wind energy already works.

“The ‘just not in my backyard’ attitude can be seen everywhere.

I understand that it’s a completely new situation for the neighbors when wind turbines are built next to their house,” says Danish Energy Agency Director General Christoph Botzauw.

On the other hand, the head of the European wind energy association “WindEurope”, Giles Dixons, states that Latvia has been slower than other countries in introducing the principle that allows municipalities to collect money from local communities, even though they benefit from wind parks. “Most European Union countries did this from the beginning, and the local population has been benefiting for a long time,” he adds.

The Ministry of Climate and Energy plans to submit the compensation solution for public consultation in the near future and then review it with the government.

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