The Estonian parliament on Tuesday passed a bill to amend the Building Code and other laws, initiated by the government, which is aimed at accelerating the deployment of renewable energy.
The amendment establishes a dedicated superficies license for offshore wind farms as a new type of superficies license.
While so far electricity producers have had to apply separately for a superficies license, an environmental permit for the special use of water, and a building permit, the amendment consolidates the requirements for these permit-granting procedures into one. Application for a superficies license for an offshore wind farm will be more extensive than each of the processes taken separately, but will be quicker in the end because on the whole there will be less submission of documents and the number of acts necessary to be performed is smaller.
Obtaining the superficies license will give the right to start the construction of an offshore wind farm, and the special use of water needed for that. In the future, a single administrative act will be issued, which will also reduce the number of court actions.
The amendment also simplifies the renewal of wind turbines and solar farms and establishes a state fee for proceedings for new applications for a superficies license, as well as a state fee for proceedings for those who wish to transfer to integrated permit proceedings.
In addition, a directive is transposed into Estonian law to enhance the development of the trans-European transport network.
The amendments were passed in the 101-seat chamber by a vote of 55 to 18.
Source: BNS
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