Will electricity production in Estonia become an industry that relies only on dotation and gives no added value?
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PhD, Energy Expert
Estonia’s own electricity production continues to decrease, covering less than 60% of consumption.
The current trend is to switch essentially to 85–90% of wind-solar electricity. Besides that, the legislator has set a target to phase out the production of oil shale electricity by 2030.
At the same time, all countries are developing wind and solar farms, and the number of hours in which wind and solar electricity generation covers consumption is increasing. Here lies the biggest threat to Estonia’s electricity economy. Surrounding countries have relatively more controllable capacities, including nuclear and hydro power, against which Estonia’s controlled oil shale electricity is not competitive due to high taxes.
There is no doubt that it is necessary to produce and consume as much combustion-free wind, nuclear and solar electricity as possible, but how can we get the money for these investments?
Today, the emissions trading scheme takes the investment money for pollution-free generation, or EUR 200–300 million per year, out of the electricity market.
In fact, there are enough funds to support the development of combustion-free production and the electricity grids, so that the production could enter the market without adding the renewable energy charge to the price of electricity, and the competitiveness of economy with neighbouring countries would be preserved.
Should the proceeds from the sale of emission quotas be used to subsidise the investments into wind-solar-nuclear electricity that is more expensive by cost price, or spent on fulfilling election promises to show how politicians “direct” the economy in the spirit of green transition? This is the key of both Estonia’s and the whole Europe’s future climate policy.