Latvia plans to invest around 1 billion euro to build wind turbine parks in order to increase its capacity to generate energy from renewable sources and strengthen its energy security, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karin said on Monday, DPA reports.

“This is a medium-term solution that will allow us to become completely independent in our energy supply and use less fossil fuels,” Krisjanis Karin said. According to the Latvian prime minister, this is one of the biggest investments ever made by the small Baltic country neighboring Russia. After the project is implemented, Latvia will go from being a country that imports electricity from countries like Russia, to becoming an exporter of electricity, said Krisjanis Karin.

In his turn, the Latvian Minister of Economy, Ilze Indriksone, revealed that the planned wind turbine parks would have a capacity of 800 Megawatts. That means it could produce 2.4 Terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, equivalent to about 30 percent of Latvia’s total electricity consumption in 2021, Ilze Indriksone said.

A new joint venture, called Latvijas Veja Parki, between the utility company Latvenergo and Latvijas Valsts Mezi, the entity responsible for managing Latvian state forests, will be responsible for the construction and operation of the wind turbine parks, which would have a total of 100 to to 120 wind turbines.

Latvia stopped importing electricity from Russia in May this year. However, like neighboring Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia is still part of the synchronized electricity grid with Russia and Belarus, the BRELL system, which dates back to the Soviet era. This means that Latvia remains connected to the network of the two eastern neighboring states.