Building permit
Contents of the building permit
The building of a wind turbine always requires a building permit or an action permit. Small wind turbines mainly serving private domestic use can be implemented with an action permit.
The local building control authority decides on the building permit application for a wind turbine in the same way as a permit matter for any other building. The requirements for granting the permit are laid out in the Land Use and Building Act.
A building permit may be applied for after the municipality has accepted the plan for the project. However, the plan need not be legally valid. In such a case, the building permit is granted as conditional and it will not enter into force until after the plan has taken legal effect.
Measurements of the turbine is needed
If the wind power project is subject to the EIA procedure, section 132 of the Land Use and Building Act shall be applied to the project. By virtue of the section, an assessment report according to the Act on Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure and a reasoned conclusion made by the competent authority on the assessment report shall be attached to the permit application. In addition, a water permit, an environmental permit or a flight obstacle permit may also be attached to the application if these have already been granted for the wind turbine. However, these permits are not required before the decision regarding the building or action permit has been taken. According to section 134 of the Land Use and Building Act, the decision on the building permit matter may be postponed until any environmental permit matter has been settled.
It is not necessary to specify the output of the wind turbine in the building permit stage. However, the application must include the maximum measurements of the turbine and the output noise level of the designed turbine. Other attachments to the building permit applications can also include updated calculations for noise and shadow flicker modelling to prove that the turbines planned for the area meet the requirements of the plan. The calculations for noise and shadow flicker modelling must always be performed again whenever the turbine model is specified also after the building permit has been granted.
Modelling of the noise and shadow flicker spread of the wind turbine before the turbines are built
The building project must comply with the wind power master plan, the local detailed plan or a granted decision concerning the need for planning. In the building permit process, it is ensured that the impacts of the wind turbine, for example, noise, shadow flicker and landscape impacts, correspond with the impacts specified in the plan or the decision concerning the need for planning. However, the type of wind turbine may change before the building work is started, and therefore it is advisable that the plan or the decision concerning the need for planning and the building permit decision include a provision that the noise and shadow flicker modelling must be carried out again before the building work is started if the turbine type changes from the type that was originally used as a basis for the modelling. This way it is ensured that the noise or shadow flicker values will not be exceeded in the nearby properties.