One of the reasons Estonia is seeing such high electricity prices is that there are renewable energy projects, which haven’t been completed, head of Enefit Green Aavo Karmas has said. Enefit Green is a subsidiary of the state-owned Eesti Energia.
“If today we had more wind, and also solar parks, then we wouldn’t see such levels of price fluctuation. One of the problems at the moment is that we are not producing enough renewable energy ourselves,” Karmas noted.
He added that since electricity consumption would continue to rise in the future, the question was how the necessary electricity would be produced. Enefit Green’s larger clients say they want to use renewable energy only.
In Estonia, however, neither Enefit Green nor any other company has opened a new wind turbine since 2013. Karmas noted that Enefit Green was currently in the middle of three development projects, while the first mainland wind turbines should be ready until the end of 2024.
Karmas added that even though establishing wind parks had been a complicated topic in Estonia over the last 10 years, signs of recovery from this could be seen. For example, the purchase of the new radar by the state and a financial instrument developed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication whereby “tolerance compensation” will be paid to local residents and companies for any disruption wind turbines might bring.
Karmas said that Enefit Green was also starting with a hydrogen pilot project, as in his estimation, the current situation, where all energy produced was sold at a high price, was not sustainable.
“We definitely believe this is the future, especially when talking about wind parks. At one point when the price is low, it is not reasonable to sell electricity to the market but save it and produce green hydrogen,” Karmas said. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
