Estonians paid almost 95 million euros for renewable energy in 2021

Estonia’s electricity production from renewable sources has grown over the past year, with consumers paying almost 95 million euros for it through bill payments, Baltnews reported.

Estonian power plants reportedly produced 2,578 gigawatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources in 2021, up 15.6% from a year earlier.

Due to unfavorable wind conditions, wind power generation in 2021 decreased compared to 2020, and wind power generation fell by 11% in a year. In total, wind energy accounted for 28% of total renewable energy production, generating 734 gigawatt-hours of electricity.

Hydroelectric power plants generated 24.8 gigawatt-hours in 2021, while a year earlier, in 2020, hydroelectric power generation was 27 gigawatt-hours. In total, 576.5 thousand euros of renewable energy support were paid for last year’s production.

As of the end of 2021, more than 9,400 solar energy producers were already registered in Estonia, and 352 megawatts of capacity were registered in the subsidy system. Compared to 2020, the number of solar energy producers has tripled.

In addition, as of the end of the year, the process of connecting to the grid about 2,600 production units, which will provide a total of 450 megawatts of production capacity based on solar energy, has not yet been completed, Estonian media note.