Wind as a Regional Growth Engine: WEA Conference in Kocēni on September 11th
The Latvian Wind Energy Association brings municipalities, developers, farmers and foreign experts to Kocēni on 11 September to ask what wind parks really give a region. We look at why the community-benefit model behind that question matters just as much for Latvia’s coming hydrogen projects.
EVENTS
HydrogenLatvia
9/4/20263 min read
On 11 September the Latvian Wind Energy Association (WEA) gathers municipal leaders, wind developers, farmers, environmental experts and guests from Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK at Kocēni Culture House, in Valmiera municipality, for a one-day conference with a plain question in its title: can wind become the engine of regional development? It is a question Latvian hydrogen ecosystem stakeholders should care about, because the same social licence that wind parks are now earning will be needed by every electrolyser and Power-to-X plant that follows them.
Key details of the conference
Date and time: Thursday, 11 September 2026, 9:00–17:00 (doors and breakfast from 8:30).
Venue: Kocēnu kultūras nams, Alejas iela 3, Kocēni, Valmiera municipality, LV-4220.
Format: on site or remote, with interpretation provided.
Registration by 9 September: ej.uz/vejsvalmiera.
Organiser: Latvian Wind Energy Association (WEA), a WindEurope member; co-financed by the Emissions Allowance Auction Instrument.
Audience: municipalities and community councils, policy makers, entrepreneurs, environmental experts, wind developers and the construction and maintenance supply chain.
Programme highlights
The morning opens with Valmiera council chairman Jānis Baiks and WEA head Toms Nāburgs, followed by LIAA on how energy investment feeds the local economy, Ramboll Management Consulting (Denmark) on planning regional impact, and Taaleri Energia (Finland) on the economics of the 112 MW Augstkalni wind park now being commissioned in Smiltene municipality. The Ministry of Climate and Energy presents the latest regulatory changes on the municipal role in wind development, and Tārgale parish head Mārcis Laksbergs shares what the Tārgale wind park near Ventspils has meant locally.
The afternoon turns outward: UK experience on wind and farming, Schleswig-Holstein on wind and tourism, Dronten municipality on the Dutch perspective, and Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian Environment on how socio-economic impact is assessed in Latvia. Two moderated panels put mayors, developers, Utilitas Wind Latvia and residents from Tukums, Naukšēni and Vārme at the same table. That mix of proponents and sceptics is the point of the day.
The community-benefit model that hydrogen projects will inherit
Here is the extra point we would add to the agenda. Since August 2024 Latvia has had Cabinet regulations on wind power station payments for local community development: developers pay €2,500 per installed MW each year, split equally between the municipality and residents living within 2 km of an onshore turbine (25 km of the coast for offshore), with individual payments floored at one month’s minimum wage and exempt from personal income tax. For a park the size of Augstkalni that is roughly €280,000 a year flowing into one municipality and its neighbours, every year, for the life of the asset. We recommend checking the current figures with the Ministry of Climate and Energy, as the scheme is reviewed at least every five years.
Why does this matter for hydrogen? Because electrolysers, hydrogen refuelling hubs and e-fuel plants will land in the same parishes, often next to the same wind parks, and will face the same questions about noise, traffic, land and who actually gains. Wind has spent a decade building the tools to answer those questions — impact assessments, benefit payments, community councils, local hiring. Latvian hydrogen ecosystem stakeholders do not need to reinvent them; we need to adopt them early and say so out loud. A hydrogen project that arrives with a transparent local-benefit package is a project that gets built.
So if you sit in a municipality, a community council or a company weighing an energy investment in Vidzeme or Kurzeme, Kocēni on 11 September is worth the trip. Register by 9 September, come with your hardest questions, and note how the wind sector answers them. Hydrogen will be asked the same ones next.