Electricity sector in Estonia is connected to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and the other

Baltic countries The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

. As of 2016, it was one of the dirtiest in the EU in terms of CO₂ emissions, as oil-based fuels accounted for about 80% of domestic production. However, renewables had grown to over 13% of production whereas they were less than 1% in 2000. Thus, Estonia is one of the countries to have reached its EU renewable target by 2016.

Consumption

According to IEA the electricity use (gross production + imports – exports – transmission/distribution losses) in 2008 in Estonia was 8.5 TWh and population 1.34 million people. Own energy production was 78% of primary energy in 2008. In 2008 electricity use per person in Estonia was 105% compared to the United Kingdom.

Production

Fossil fuels

Oil-based fuels, including oil shale and fuel oils, accounted for about 80% of domestic production in 2016. There is also some natural gas capacity, but no coal generation. The largest power complex in the country,

Narva Power Plants The Narva Power Plants ( et, Narva Elektrijaamad) are a power generation complex in and near Narva in Estonia, near the border with Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The complex consists of the world's two largest oil shale-fired thermal power plants, ...

, consists of the world's two largest

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitute ...

-fired

thermal power plant A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...

s. The complex generated about 95% of total power production in Estonia in 2007.

Wind power

Total installed

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...

was 149 MW at end of 2010 and grew to 303 MW in 2014. In the end of 2010 the installed wind power equaled in average 3.2% of electricity use. The European average was 5.3%.

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

has target of 14% (1.5 TWh) and total renewable electricity 1.9 TWh (17.6%). According to the national Energy Action Plan (2020) planned shares are onshore 9% and offshore 5%.EU Energy Policy to 2050

EWEA WindEurope is an association promoting the use of wind power in Europe. Based in Brussels it has over 600 members, which are active in over 50 countries, including manufacturers with a leading share of the world wind power market, component suppli ...

March 2011 pages 43, 45, 55 The state energy company

Eesti Energia Eesti Energia AS is a public limited energy company in Estonia with its headquarters in Tallinn. It is the world's biggest oil shale to energy company. The company was founded in 1939. As of 2014, it operates in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Fi ...

was interested in offshore wind energy in 2008.Eesti Energia suunnittelee suurinvestointeja tuulivoimaan
yle 8.5.2008

Other renewables

The rest of Estonia's generation is from other renewable fuels. Wood-based fuels were the second largest source of power in 2016. The rest comes from waste and other biofuels, as well as a small amount of hydropower.

Transmission and trade

Estonia's grid is an important hub as it is connected to Finland in the north, Russia in the east, Latvia and Lithuania in the south. Electricity is traded on the Nordic power market

Nord Pool Nord Pool AS is a pan-European power exchange. Nord Pool has a main office in Oslo and further offices in Stockholm, Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin and London. The company is owned by the European exchange operator Euronext as well as TSO Holding, ...

. In 2014–2016, yearly net imports from Finland were equal to 31-67% of consumption. Meanwhile, yearly new exports to Latvia were equal to 57-84% of consumption. Some years there are also exports to Russia. Between Estonia and Finland there are the submarine

Estlink Estlink is a set of HVDC submarine power cables between Estonia and Finland. Estlink 1 is the first interconnection between the Baltic and Nordic electricity markets followed by Estlink 2 in 2014. The main purpose of the Estlink connection is to ...

cables.

References

{{Europe topic, Electricity sector in Electric power in Estonia