Wind turbines will become part of our everyday life - climate and energy minister

RIGA - In the future, we should expect wind turbines to become part of our everyday life, i.e., they will be in our neighborhood, Climate and Energy Minister Raimonds Cudars (New Unity) said in an interview on TV3 on Thursday.

Commenting on how to best use renewable energy sources in Latvia, Cudars said that in Latvia's case the best option, for example for electricity generation, would be to combine solar and wind energy, because solar panels alone cannot ensure the stability of the system. Therefore, they need to be combined.

Cudars also noted that, given its sparse population, Latvia has a great potential for wind farm deployment, including a great potential to use forest land for that purpose.

Asked about residents' possible objections to the installation of wind turbines in their municipalities, Cudars said that a solution is being prepared to introduce a special duty that would be charged on the wind farms, and the money raised from this source would be paid into the municipal budgets and spent on the local communities' needs.