Estonia has been involved with EU accession talks since 1998.  The country officially joined the EU in May 2004.  Since gaining membership, the EU’s existing directives have played a large role in Estonia’s energy field.  The table below displays basic summary information about Estonia (IEA, 2006).

Estonia Country Summary Table

Estonia has approximately 2.40 gigawatts (GW) of installed electric-generating capacity, 98 percent of which comes from thermal power plants (EIA, 2005).  The Estonian Power Station and the Baltic Power Station, both fueled by oil shale, together make up nearly 95 percent of Estonia’s electric production.  The remainder of the electricity is generated by other oil shale plants, combined heat and power plants, hydroelectric plants, and windfarms (UDI, 2009).  Estonia produces some oil domestically from oil shale, but for the most part, the country imports its oil products.  Estonia also imports 100 percent of its gas consumption (IEA, 2006).

Estonia has privatized its sole gas importer and distributor, Eesti Gaas, and has committed to unbundling its electricity utility, Eesti Energia.  Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy) is the dominant player in the Estonian power sector, as it has responsibilities for the bulk of the country's power-generating units and its distribution networks.

Estonia currently obtains less than 1 percent of its power from renewable sources, but under a deal with the European Union (EU) the Baltic state will have to raise that percentage to 5.1 percent by 2010 as its moves itself away from oil-shale-fired electricity.

The government has sought to increase efficiency in energy usage and reliable electricity generation and distribution by seeking outside investment where applicable for infrastructure improvements.  The country also facilitates competition and diversity within energy industries.  To this end the government began a phased-in liberalization of the electricity sector in 2001.  Tariffs were established to allow all customers to choose their electricity supplier, however, at this time only the customers whose annual use exceeds 40 GWh can choose their electricity supplier.  These financial reforms come on the heels of the unbundling of the energy sector in to a grid operator, Eesti Energia, generation companies, and distribution networks.  The two largest generating stations, Eesti Elektrijaam and Balti Electrijaam, were purchased by US based NRG Energy, Inc. in 2000 and 2001, respectively.  Additionally, two of the regional distribution companies have been sold to international investors.

A map of the electricity grid of Estonia is provided below.

Estonia’s Transmission System (Source: GENI)

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According to the Electricity Market Act, entered into force in 2003, renewable energy sources are hydro, wind, solar, wave, tidal and geothermal energy sources, landfill gas, sewage treatment plant gas, biogases and biomass.  In the Act, biomass is defined as the biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues from agriculture (including vegetable and animal substances), forestry and related industries, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste.

The Electricity Market Act was amended in 2007 to introduce a new aid scheme.  Highlights from the law’s aid scheme are detailed below.

·          Aid scheme: enables renewable energy producers to enter into a purchase agreement or sell the electricity itself and be given aid for the electricity sent to the grid and sold.

·          Mandatory purchase price for electricity produced by renewable energy: 0.11 USD/kWh.

·          Producers can choose to receive 0.08 USD/kWh for electricity sent to the grid and sold.

·          Duration of the aid last 12 years from the start of production.

Estonia also is committed to the “Long-term national development plan for the fuel and energy sector until 2015,” which was adopted by a decision of the Parliament in December 2004.  The plan calls for 12 percent of the gross national energy consumption to be renewable, which has already been achieved.  Also, 5.1 percent of the electricity consumption must be renewable by 2010 and 8 percent by 2015.

Estonia also plans to meet its EU targets, one of which is 25 percent of the energy consumption must be renewable resources by 2020.  Also, 10 percent of the transport fuel produced must be made from renewable resources in 2020 (Kask, 2009).

Additionally, Estonia has ratified several international agreements, like the European Energy Charter Treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution and its protocols, and Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.

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The cyclonic activity of the Baltic Sea region results in high mean wind speeds throughout the area.  In general, the wind potential in the coastal zone of Estonia is higher than that in the other Baltic countries.  A country wide wind-atlas is available for Estonia, where several areas with annual average wind speeds of 7 - 8 m/s at 10 m height were identified. This corresponds to wind speeds over 10 m/s at 50 m height. 

Wind resources suitable for power utilization are available on approximately 20 percent of Estonia’s territory.

The theoretical wind potential in Estonia is estimated at about 9 TWh.  Considering electrical network restrictions, the optimistic wind target is 3 TWh and realistically the potential is about 1.3 TWh.  The strongest obstacle to the construction of wind power is the low grid capacity.  The Estonian government has announced that, beginning in 2009, it will limit the amount of wind-delivered electricity it would buy at a fixed price to just 200 MW, stating technical reasons of load balancing.

With regard to wind speeds, the Estonian coast can be divided into three areas:

·          The west coast of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, with capacity factors close to 42 percent, where the possibility for installed capacity is around 10 MW and annual production could be up to 36 GWh. 

·          The coast of Liivi Bay, with a capacity factor close to 37 percent, and the potential for installed capacity of 250 MW and annual production up to 800 GWh.

·          The coast of Väinamere and North coast, with a capacity factor close to 30 percent, potential for installed capacity of around 300 MW and annual production up to 440 GWh.

As of June 2009, Estonia has 83.4 MW of installed wind energy capacity.  The wind capacity has risen by almost 50 MW since October of 2006.  Currently, the largest wind installation is the Pakri-1 with a capacity of 18.4 MW.  Approximately 150 MW of capacity have been planned for Estonia (UDI, 2009). 

Estonia Wind Resource Map (Source: 3Tier)

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4.  Biomass

Estonia’s forests cover about 47.9 percent of the country’s whole territory.  The country has a high potential for energy production from wood-based fuels - firewood, wood by-products (e.g., wood chips, pellets, granules, briquettes), forest residues, waste wood (including sawdust, shavings, edgings, etc).  Many Estonians have been using wood fuels to heat their homes for decades (Kask, 2009).

The wood processing industry is well developed in Estonia, and waste wood from these activities is effectively collected. Currently about 95 percent of waste wood is used for energy production. Several enterprises are producing wood chips, wood briquettes (49,000 tons in 2007) and pellets (338,000 tons in 2007). The market for wood chips, briquettes and pellets is well developed and expands from Estonia throughout the Baltics and to Sweden and Denmark.  The amount of solid bio fuels has increased by approximately 40 percent over the past five years (Kask, 2009).

Due to the high level of utilization of wood wastes from industry, there is competition for the resource which has prompted consideration of energy crop farming.  A few experiments on growing energy crops were performed in Estonia.

Forest residues could be further utilized for energy production.  This would be accomplished primarily through more efficient and more widespread collection efforts.  The level of collection of these residues depends highly on transport distances and the resulting delivered cost.  If the market price is too low to support the delivery cost, these residues are often left in the forest.  Despite the improvements to the collection system that could be made, Estonia is currently constructing their first 25 MW wood-fueled cogeneration plant (UDI, 2009).

There is also potential for the production of biogas.  Approximately, 60 percent of manure produced in the Estonian farms could be used for biogas production, yielding about 500 GWh of primary energy annually. Biogas is already produced in landfills and sewage treatment plants.   Plans for biogas plants are underway in Estonia (UDI, 2009).

So far unused resource is wetland plants (reed, cattail) growing on more than 6000 ha. Artificial wetlands, which work as sewage treatment systems are also excellent places for energy crop cultivation. There are a number of systems already functioning in Estonian villages. Wider use of reed and cattail for energy production is impeded by technical and logistical problems.

Total primary energy content of biomass in Estonia which could be used annually for energy production exceeds 20 TWh. Calculated primary energy content of willow plantations, agricultural waste, wetland plants and biogas is about 10,5 TWh/y.

Estonia Biomass Resource Data

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There is minimal use of solar energy in Estonia for heat supply and electricity production. The solar energy resource potential is small in Estonia because of climatic conditions unfavorable for using solar energy and of northern latitudinal placement. The quantitative evaluation of this potential is given below in the tables for one point (Tiravere) located in the eastern part of the country.

Monthly and annual total solar radiation incident on horizontal surface, MJ/m²

Monthly and annual direct solar radiation incident on surface normal to sunlight beams, MJ/m²

The territory of Estonia is very small (only 45 ths. km²). The climate is uniform for the overall territory, and as a result the data from the tables can be distributed without any considerable mistake for the entire territory of the country.  It follows that there are no zones or regions in Estonia with the considerable solar energy resource potential.

The figures below show the direct normal and global horizontal irradiation values for Estonia.  The maps show that throughout the country Estonia has medium to low solar irradiation values. 

Direct Normal Irradiation Values

Global Horizontal Irradiation Values

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The geothermal conditions in Estonia are unfavorable and the geothermal gradient is lower than the average level.  Thermal water was not found and a national program for geothermal resources is absent.  An evaluation of geothermal resources was not carried out.  The heat flux of the country can be seen in the figure below.  Estonia does not have significant heat flux values anywhere throughout the country.

Heat Flux (mW/m²) of Estonia

Source: Energie-Atlas GmbH

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Most of Estonia’s 7,308 rivers and streams are shorter than 10 km, with less than 50 rivers exceeding flows of 2 m³/s and only 14 rivers having flows over 10 m³/s, as the country’s terrain is relatively flat. While this leaves poor opportunity for large hydro generators, but several hundred sites are suitable for small hydro.  The technical hydropower resource is estimated to be about 25-35 MW (excluding the border river Narva) with total annual output potential of 0.2-0.4 TWh.

Before the Second World War there were 921 hydro turbines and water wheels in operation with total capacity over 27.5 MW. Their production covered about 28 percent of the total electricity consumption.  During the war most of hydropower facilities were destroyed.  After Estonia regained its independence, a new push towards hydro development reemerged.  In 2009 there were over 30 small-scale hydropower plants in operation with total capacity of 5.3 MW.

The figure below is a map displaying operating and planned hydroelectric plants.

Hydropower Plants Operating (red) and Planned (blue)

(Source: EREC)

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