Renewable energy covers 16.7 per cent of electricity consumption over last year

In the last year in Estonia, 1507 gigawatt-hours of electricity energy were produced from renewable sources, an increase of 11.1 per cent over 2014. Estonia’s renewable energy production covered 16.7 per cent of consumption needs, or 1.9 percentage points more than in the previous year.

Estonia has set a goal of increasing the share of renewable energy to 17.6 per cent of consumption by 2020. The intermediate target in 2015 was 13.2 per cent.

“Last year showed that Estonia is producing and has the potential to produce far more electricity and heat from renewable sources than we need to meet our national renewable energy targets. This opens the door for renewable energy exports and not selling energy, but exporting the national statistical surplus,” said Chairman of the Elering Board, Taavi Veskimägi.

Renewable energy accounted for 17.8 per cent of Estonia’s total consumption in the fourth quarter of last year. This figure was 16.7 per cent for the same period in 2014.

The volume of renewable energy receiving subsidies also grew by 11 per cent last year to 1253 gigawatt-hours. In monetary terms, this means that Elering paid out 67 million euros in renewable energy subsidies.

In the last year, biomass, biogas and waste made up 52 per cent of total energy production from renewable sources. A total of 784 gigawatt-hours were produced from these sources, or four per cent more than in the previous year. Electricity produced from biomass, biogas and waste received support to the tune of 33.9 million euros, which is 1.7 million euros more than the year before.

Wind energy provided 46 per cent of total renewable energy production in 2015. Wind power output increased by 21 per cent in a year. In the annual summary, wind conditions were better compared with 2014 – measurements on Pakri peninsula and in Virtsu showed that average daily wind speed increased 32 per cent. Consequently, subsidies for wind energy increased by 23 per cent to 32.2 million euros within the year.

The limit for subsidised wind energy as set out in the Electricity Market Act – 600 gigawatt-hours in a calendar year – was reached for the first time.  Production reached the limit late on 25 December, and no subsidies were paid for any electricity produced from wind turbines in the last five days of the year.

Hydro energy production reached 27 gigawatt-hours last year. The largest increase as compared with 2014 continued to be seen in solar energy – total energy production volumes increased from 524 megawatt-hours to 1.6 gigawatt-hours, and subsidies increased in line with volumes to over 83 000 euros. This sum, however, represents only a small part of total subsidies. In total, among renewable energy producers, there are over 400 solar panel owners, most of which are micro-producers.

In comparison with 2014, subsidies for combined heat and power (CHP) decreased by 4 per cent to 4.8 million euros. The volumes of CHP-produced electricity energy receiving subsidies fell from 157 gigawatt-hours to 151 gigawatt-hours.

More information on renewable energy subsidies can be found here.