The Narva Power Plants ( et, Narva Elektrijaamad) are a power generation complex in and near

Narva Narva, russian: Нарва is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in Ida-Viru county, at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia international border. With 5 ...

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, an ...

, near the border with

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast ( rus, Ленинградская область, Leningradskaya oblast’, lʲɪnʲɪnˈgratskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, , ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It was established on 1 August 1927, although it was not until 1 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. The complex 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 constitut ...

-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 steam ...

s, Eesti Power Plant () and Balti Power Plant (). In 2007, Narva Power Plants generated about 95% of total power production in Estonia. The complex is owned and operated by AS Narva Elektrijaamad, a subsidiary of

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 ...

Balti Power Plant

The Balti Power Plant was built between 1959 and 1965. It is located south-west of Narva. As of the end of 2005, Balti Power Plant had an installed capacity of 765 MW. The installed thermal capacity was 400 MW. The cooling water is supplied from the Narva Reservoir, which is closely connected to the

Narva River The river Narva ( et, Narva jõgi; russian: Нарва), formerly also Narova flows north into the Baltic Sea and is the largest Estonian river by discharge. A similar length of land far to the south, together with it and a much longer interme ...

via two long inlet channels. The Balti Power Plant is the sole supplier of thermal power for the

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating ...

system of Narva. The Balti Power Plant is divided into an old and a new part. The old part initially had eighteen TP-17 boilers and eight 100 MWe turbines. Four boilers and two turbines are currently in operation, while the others have been taken out of service. The new part has eight TP-67 boilers and four 200 MWe turbines. All these boilers use the pulverized combustion (PC) technology. In 2003, the Unit 11 was reconstructed to use the circulated fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) technology, which is more efficient and environmental-friendly (lower SO₂ and CO₂ emissions) than PC technology. Balti Power Plant has four

flue gas stack A flue-gas stack, also known as a smoke stack, chimney stack or simply as a stack, is a type of chimney, a vertical pipe, channel or similar structure through which combustion product gases called flue gases are exhausted to the outside air. Flue g ...

s, which are , , and tall.

Eesti Power Plant

The Eesti Power Plant is located roughly 20 km west-south-west of Narva. It was built between 1963 and 1973. As of the end of 2005, Eesti Power Plant had installed capacity of 1,615 MW. The installed thermal capacity was 84 MW. Cooling water is supplied from the Narva River and Mustajõgi River via a long open channel. The Eesti Power Plant initially had sixteen TP-101 boilers and eight 200 MWe steam turbines. Fourteen boilers and seven turbines are currently in service. In 2003, the Unit 8 was reconstructed to use the CFBC technology. Eesti Power Plant has two tall flue-gas stacks, which are the tallest in Estonia. In 2014, Eesti Power Plant was named as 15th among top 30

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

's most polluting power plants. It also was the only listed power plant from

Baltic states 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 ...

and

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sw ...

region, emitting 10.67 Mt of per year into the atmosphere.Estonian power plant among Europe's top polluters
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Auvere Power Plant

On 14 January 2011, Narva Elektrijaamad signed a contract with the French power engineering company

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational corporation, multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the A ...

for construction of the new Auvere Power Plant next to the existing Eesti Power Plant. The initial €540 million contract foresaw a construction of a 300 MW oil shale-fired unit which was completed 2015. The unit utilizes a circulating fluidized bed boiler technology. The original contract included an option for the second unit; however, in February 2014, plans for the second unit were cancelled.

Ash disposal

The

burnt at Narva plants produces roughly 46% ash, so the stations produce about 4.5 million tons of ash per year. The ash-disposal system involves washing it away with water, and the dirty water is stored in ash-storage lagoons which appear bright blue on the satellite photos. Balti has two storage areas. The western one is divided into twelve sub-regions by banks about three metres wide, and is already closed. The eastern one is in current use and is divided into three sub-regions. The ash is highly

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...

, since the non-combustible portion of the oil shale is essentially

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

Wind farm

In 2012, a 39 MW

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

was erected on the closed ash field of Balti Power Plant. The wind farm consists of 17

Enercon Enercon GmbH is a wind turbine manufacturer based in Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has been the market leader in Germany since the mid-1990s. Enercon has production facilities in Germany (Aurich, Emden and Magdeburg), Brazil, India, Canada, ...

E82

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s, 2.3 MW each. The hub height is and the rotor diameter is . To fasten the generators' foundations, stakes have been drilled into the field's limestone base. The wind farm cost €60 million and was completed in 2012.

References

External links

Corporate website of Eesti Energia
{{Narva landmarks Oil shale-fired power stations in Estonia Power stations built in the Soviet Union Energy infrastructure completed in 1965 Energy infrastructure completed in 1973 Towers completed in 1973 Buildings and structures in Ida-Viru County Narva