Share of renewable energy in total consumption rises significantly

The share of electricity produced from renewable sources increased in 2010 by more than 76% to 862 GWh, accounting for almost 10% of Estonia’s total electricity consumption. A year ago the share was only 6%.

The amount of renewable energy produced from waste and biomass has more than doubled to 0.5 TWh, and there was also a significant rise in the share of wind energy of 44% to 0.28 TWh. The share of electricity produced from hydro-power is very low in Estonia, and in 2010 hydro-energy production fell by 11%.

Chairman of the Board of Elering Taavi Veskimägi said that it is important to note that Estonia had committed to producing 5.1% of electricity from renewable sources in 2010. “Although this 10% level of renewable energy is not exactly the same as the definition of national domestic consumption given in the directive, it is in one sense certainly worth asking whether such rapid growth in the share of renewable energy, growth which is based on subsidies, is not too much of an imposition on consumers. At the same time we can say that this is a chance to promote an Estonian success story, because a lot of European countries are looking for a model of how to achieve rapid growth in the share of renewable energy.”

The increase in the amount of electricity produced from biomass in 2010, especially in the first half of the year, led to producers not being paid the renewable energy subsidy even for production in combined generation mode. This is particularly true of the Eesti power blocks in the Narva power plants, which produced 140 GWh of renewable energy in the first half of the year. The total amount of electricity produced from biomass that received the subsidy in 2010 was 535 GWh. A change in the law in the middle of the year meant that subsidies were only paid for electricity from biomass if it met the criteria for combined generation. As a consequence the amount of electricity produced from biomass should be lower in 2011, although these criteria are quite achievable for all Estonian producers. In autumn 2010 a 25-MW combined heat and power (CHP) plant started up in Pärnu, and in the last three months of the year it produced more than 14 GWh of electricity from biomass.

The significant increase in the production of electricity from wind power was caused by the addition of new wind farms during the year, with energy coming from Aulepa, Skinest and Virtsu III. As the technical requirements of the grid code have been met it is expected that electricity produced from wind energy and qualifying for the subsidy will increase to 340 GWh in 2011.

In total the amount of renewable energy that qualified for the subsidy grew by 83% to 755 GWh, with production levels of biomass and wind-powered electricity doubling. The subsidy for renewable energy and efficient CHP generation was 711.3 million kroons last year, or around 45 million euros, which is 76% more than in 2009. Windparks received 128 million kroons (8.2 million euros) and electricity from biomass 450 million kroons (28.9 million euros). The amount of hydro-energy produced that qualified for the subsidy remained about the same, while the subsidy for energy produced from biogas was around 9 million kroons, a rise of around 40% from a year earlier.

Elering forecast that for 2011 the subsidy paid to producers of renewable energy and efficient CHP energy will be around 57.7 million euros (900 million kroons).