Limited wind power development due to spatial planning regulations and administrative issues in Latvia

Wind energy project developers have shown interest and, in some cases, have started implementing wind energy projects in Latvia without additional state financial support. However, more and more signals are being received from the industry that there are many limiting factors for the faster development of such projects, mainly related to spatial planning conditions and administrative issues.

Although Latvia has plenty of rural areas, the land lots are relatively small and ownership is fragmented. Therefore, there are seldom situations where one owner has several lots of land next to each other. This means that the project developer potentially has to reach an agreement with several land owners in order to develop a project in a particular area. Fragmentation of ownership limits the available land on which wind farms could be erected. Also due to data protection (Regulation 2016/679) it is difficult to reach the relevant land owners, as municipal employees do not have the right to give the necessary contacts to project developers.

In addition, there are restrictions on the use of land classified as agricultural land of national importance to protect high-quality agricultural land from being used for purposes other than agriculture.Also project developers cannot get permission to use forest land, owned by the state, which is managed and administrated by the Joint Stock Company “Latvia’s State Forests”. Although the Latvian NECP mentions that it would be useful to ensure the use of agricultural land and state forest land of national importance for the development of wind farms  industry is sceptical and does not see that this will change in the near future.