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Estonia

MARKET STRUCTURE

 
Estonia has extensive fossil fuel reserves, including a large oil shale industry. However, the average annual growth rate for RES-E stands at 27 per cent. Estonia’s largest RES potential is to be found in the biomass sector, but possibilities also exist in the areas of wind power, biogas electricity and small hydropower.

KEY SUPPORT SCHEMES

 
Estonian legislation relevant to RES-E includes:

• An obligation on the grid operator to buy RES-E providing that the amount ‘does not exceed the network losses during the trading period’ which came into force in 2005.
• A voluntary mechanism involving green energy certificates was also created by the grid operator (the state-owned Eesti Energia Ltd) in 2001.

Renewable electricity is purchased for a guaranteed fixed price of 81 EEKcents/kWh (5.2c€/kWh). Before, the Electricity Market Act (EMA) prices were linked to the sales prices of the two major oil-shale-based power plants.

The EMA states that the preferential purchase price for wind electricity is guaranteed for 12 years, but all current support mechanisms will be terminated in 2015. There is no information on legislation planned to replace this after 2015.

Table I.7: Key Support Schemes in Estonia

FUTURE TARGETS

In Estonia, the share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources is projected to reach 5.1 per cent in 2010. For RES-E, an average annual growth rate of 27 per cent has been registered between 1997 and 2004. Estonia’s share of RES-E stood at 0.7 per cent in 2004, compared to 0.2 per cent in 1997. Dominant sources of RES-E in Estonia are solid biomass and small-scale hydropower.