SRF has a representative in the EU project BALOWIL, which deals with offshore wind power [Offshore Wind Park (OWP)]. The project had its second workshop in Tallinn on Tuesday. There were about 25 participants from the Baltic States, Poland and Sweden, of which two were from Sweden.
The project is financed, among other things, by the EU and the Swedish Institute and led by five research and development organizations. They are AirClim [The Air Pollution and Climate Secretariat, which is a non-profit association run by four svenational organizations: Fältbiologerna, Jordens Vänner, Naturskyddsföreningen and World Nature Fund (WWF)], which owns the project, and Green Liberty (Latvia), Polish Wind Energy Association (Poland), The Environmental Center for Administration and Technology (Lithuania), The Institute of Baltic Studies (Estonia).
The purpose of the project is to investigate innovative ways to engage OWP actors to work together with local actors for the sustainable establishment of offshore wind power in the Baltic Sea. It is mainly the countries around the eastern Baltic Sea that are most active.
At the meeting, the results of the project's first workshop and the project management's proposals for recommendations to facilitate the establishment of OWP were presented. They point to three important concerns that affect establishment: Economic, Social and environmental concerns. The project management presented these concerns and gave suggestions on how these should be handled. The participants were then divided into two groups to discuss these concerns and suggestions for how to deal with them. The discussions were documented and will be compiled and shared with the participants and included in the project's final report. After that, all participants were given five votes to place on the five most important measures to facilitate the establishment of OWP.
An in-depth report with additional documentation will come when documentation from the meeting has been distributed to the participants.