Eesti Energia is set to invest €2.5 billion over a five-year period, of which €1.5 billion is to go on construction of wind and solar parks, with the rest earmarked for development in Ida-Viru County, and to making the electricity grid more effective than it is at present. The investment in renewables will help to resolve the issue of supply, which in turn has been blamed for much of the unprecedented price increase in recent months, while the company uses the investment plans as justification for its substantial profits. Since the main current problem is that our region as a whole lack’s electricity production capacity, the fastest and most appropriate solution for society in the current energy crisis is to invest in renewable electricity.
Eesti Energia already invested €24.7 million in the electricity network, €39.9 million in renewables and €16.8 million in the Enefit 280 planned oil shale plant this year so far. Downtime with wind and solar energy, meaning the winter months primarily, in both cases, can be covered by other capacities, while security of supply also gets a boost via the development of storage technologies such as a planned hydroelectric storage plant. Eesti Energia’s renewables subsidiary, Enefit Green, has taken on the under-development Tootsi wind farm, which has an output capacity of 74 MW, and plans to augment this with the Sopi windfarm – which together with Tootsi will generate 161 MW.