Another wind farm is going to be built in the highlands of the Carpathians. It is a wind farm with a capacity of up to 110 MW within the Yaremcha city community in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. Public hearings will be held on March 8, and environmental activists are calling on all concerned citizens to voice their concerns about the project.
This was reported by the environmental community "Save Pikui."
Threat to nature and tourism
Construction is planned on sections of the Tovsty, Syholka, and Hordia ridges. The land is designated for agricultural use and is owned by the state and municipality.
Activists analyzed what the future wind farm will be adjacent to and identified a number of natural monuments and objects that may be affected:
- Conservation zones. Besides primeval forests, the Hordya and Syholka areas include territories belonging to five objects of the nature reserve fund. These are the National Parks "Carpathian" and "Hutsulshchyna", the ornithological reserve "Pozheratulskyi", the protected tract "Pereslip", and the botanical natural monument "European Cedar Pine Reserve".
- Water bodies. Several dozen streams originate from the foothills of the ridges. Later, they flow into the transboundary Prut River.
- Tourist routes. The construction of the wind power plant will be located on the path between the Torun Pass and Kostr ych Ridge.
What concerns can the local community raise?
The European Energy Agency does not consider or recommend the Yaremche community for the development of wind power plants. According to activists, this is indicated on the map for renewable energy development in four regions of Ukraine.
The construction of the power plant will impact the landscape, damaging pristine nature. Future operation, in turn, will harm both the environment and people, including noise pollution and effects on wildlife, especially large birds.
Eco-activists emphasize that the community will not receive economic benefits – the wind power plant will not provide cheap and accessible energy to nearby settlements. Instead, the community itself will face the need to dispose of huge wind turbines in the future, as their service life is about 20 years.
"People, attend the hearings. The encroachment on the Carpathian Mountains, where there is still preserved environment, namely the strategic biodiversity of the Eastern Carpathians, can be stopped," the eco-community urges.
EcoPolitic has reported that despite violations by the developer, the Ministry of Economy issued an EIA opinion for the construction of a wind farm on Polonyna Runa. Despite the minister's promises not to cut down forest for the project, a map of logging sites for a 50-meter wide power transmission line, which will cut across the Carpathian forest massifs, is already prepared.
