2nd tier court dismisses complaint of opponents of Hiiumaa wind farm

The action to revoke the order of the county governor had been filed by the nonprofit MTU Hiiu Tuul, the Hiiumaa rural municipality, and individuals Inge Talts, Lembit Vainumae, Kristi Ugam and Igor Prigoda. The appellate court left in force a decision of the first tier court from earlier this year which finds that the appellants have no right of appeal in the said case given the circumstances.

The appellate court agreed with the stance of the administrative court that the physical persons have no right to contest the plan to protect their subjective rights. The second tier court found that the administrative court has left none of the main arguments of the appellants without attention, has presented its stance with regard to them and has sufficiently substantiated its stance.

“Adopting a plan like this is a difficult process. The interest of the state in developing renewable energy is obvious and has been set out in several strategic documents. There are always people who do not want change, and the wish to stand up for the protection of the nature of Hiiumaa can be understood,” said Martin Tamme, attorney with the law office TGS Baltic that represented the county government.

“At the same time, different interests are in balance in the present plan. For instance, wind turbines cannot be erected closer than 12 kilometers from the shore, which means that the visual impact will be correspondingly smaller,” Tamme said, adding that imposing further restrictions cannot be ruled out when more surveys are completed.

“However, both the plan and the decisions of two tiers of court leaving it in force constitute a fundamental step toward the materialization of offshore wind farms,” the attorney added.

The thematic plan determining the areas suitable for the development of wind energy in Hiiu county was endorsed by the county governor in August 2015.

Nelja Energia AS wishes to build a wind farm of 100 to 160 wind turbines with an aggregate capacity of 700 to 1,100 megawatts in the sea to the north of Hiiumaa. The turbines having a nominal capacity of 4-7 megawatts would stand at a distance of about one kilometer from each other, have masts 100-105 meters tall and rotors with a diameter of 130-164 meters.