Wind energy production grows by a fifth over last year

According to data provided by Elering, Estonia’s wind power plants provided the grid with 692.5 gigawatt-hours of power in 2015, an increase of 116.5 gigawatt-hours or 20 per cent compared with 2014. 

The largest monthly figures for wind energy production last year were in December, when 92.6 gigawatt-hours were produced. The average wind speeds in December at the Pakri and Virtsu measuring stations were 7.1 and 4.5 metres per second respectively, which is 58 and 31 per cent higher respectively compared with December 2014.

Wind parks received subsidies for a total of 610.7 gigawatt-hours of wind energy produced over the previous year.

According to the Electricity Market Act, a ceiling is set out for subsidised wind energy in Estonia, currently set at 600 gigawatt-hours per year. This subsidised volume of wind energy was reached on the evening of 25 December last year, between 21:00 and 22:00. From the evening of 25 December until the last moments of the year, no subsidies were provided for any wind energy producers. Therefore, less than two per cent of the annual wind energy produced by wind parks with a right to a support was not subsidized due to the wind energy subsidy ceiling being reached.

More than 32 million euros were made available for wind energy subsidies in 2015. The subsidies are financed by renewable energy fees collected from electricity consumers.