Estonia's state-owned power producer EestiEnergia is evaluating investing 2.5 billion euros in electricity generation over five years. Of the total investment, 1.5 billion euros will be used to develop wind and solar parks in Ida-Viru county by 2026, company officials said. Estonia is one of the European countries that has been trying to reduce its dependence on Russia. Energy supply, especially natural gas. Until recently, Russian gas accounted for 12% of its demand. But now, the country has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure energy security for its own and other European neighbors.

The company has already invested 39.9 million euros in renewable energy. It also invested 16.8 million euros in the Enefit280 oil shale plant. Mattias Kaiv, spokesman for Eesti Energia, said it was appropriate to invest in renewable energy as the region has challenges in terms of electricity production capacity. He added that the Baltic region has not accelerated the development of renewable energy. Adding wind and solar farms to the region also means that expensive and polluting power plants that run on fossil fuels will not come to market.

Eesti Energia believes that with the increase in renewable energy, higher power capacity will lead to greater cooperation among smaller suppliers. This will help create more jobs. It is also possible to produce by-products for other industries. According to Eesti officials, decentralized solar installations should increase as there is strong interest in such small plants, and recently Estonia's grid distributor Elektrilevi said it had received more than 3.200 applications

The applications came from those looking to connect small solar plants to the grid. That's a fourfold increase in one year. The company has signed agreements with about 1,000 of these generators.

Eesti Energia believes that the future will also work on making the grid stable and efficient. It said its proposed investment in renewable energy would make up for the shortfall in electricity supply that recently led to a sudden rise in electricity prices. Its subsidiary EnefitGreen, which studies renewable energy, is developing the Tootsi wind farm with a capacity of 74 MW. The Tootsi and Sopi wind farms will generate 161 megawatts of power when in operation. Keywords: engineering news, overseas news

Eesti Energia Chairman Hando Sutter recently announced that the company's strong profit of €33 million in the second quarter of 2022 should be used to make renewable energy consumption sustainable by the end of the decade.Editor/XingWentao