Estonia’s Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (CPTRA) has declined to grant development licences for the Saare 7 offshore wind area after determining that neither applicant met the criteria required to proceed, the agency said on Monday.
The decision follows a competitive auction held in June for the 158.9-square-kilometre sea area off Estonia’s western coast. Two companies—Sunly Wind OÜ and OÜ Utilitas Wind—submitted applications for a superficies licence, which is required for offshore wind development in Estonian waters.
According to CPTRA, both applicants failed to fulfil the conditions necessary to participate in the auction. As a result, the authority said it “intends to refuse to initiate the superficies licence proceedings in respect of all the competing applications in the Saare 7 sea area.”
The agency added that the future of the Saare 7 zone remains uncertain. A new auction will depend on whether developers express renewed interest in the site. “A new application for a superficies licence would need to be submitted to the CPTRA in order to establish an offshore wind farm in the Saare 7 area,” it said.
No timeline has been provided for a possible relaunch of the licensing process.
