OREANDA-NEWS. On June 16, 2009 The formal opening ceremony for the most powerful wind farm in the Baltic States was held in Laane County, Estonia, reported the press-centre of Eesti Energia.

“Aulepa wind farm is Eesti Energia’s biggest investment into development of renewable energy. By developing renewable energy projects, we are reducing the environmental impact of the energy sector. The completion of Aulepa wind farm is a major step toward cleaner, more responsible energy production,” said Chairman of the Eesti Energia Management Board Sandor Liive at the opening. Liive said that the completion of Aulepa wind farm supports the Eesti Energia production strategy, one of the primary goals of which is to make energy generation more environmentally friendly.

Eesti Energia Renewable Energy Business Unit director Ando Leppiman says that stricter environmental requirements and EU climate policy speak strongly in favour of the adoption of energy produced from renewable sources. “Thanks to Aulepa wind farm, we can offer Eesti Energia customers electricity produced in an environmentally sustainable manner, cutting annual atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide by 120 000 tons,“ added Leppiman.

The brand-new wind farm is rated at 39 megawatts (MW). The wind farm has 13 turbines, each rated at 3 MW. Sven Aasa, member of the Aulepa wind farm’s management board and project manager, described the process of completion as “smooth” and praised the cooperation between all of the parties involved: “The work begun last January toward establishing the wind farm proceeded without a hitch.”

The annual output of Aulepa wind farm will be about 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which is 1.3 per cent of the domestic end consumption of electricity in Estonia. That is approximately equivalent to the amount of power consumed per year by 35,000 Estonian families. The total cost of the project is close to 900 million kroons and it was self-financed by Eesti Energia. The prime contractor was the Finnish wind turbine producer Winwind OY.