Not long ago, Eesti Energia started cooperation with the Danish tycoon Ørsted to build an offshore wind farm in the waters of the Gulf of Riga. The Estonian company stands by its plans, but would like the state to provide investment guarantees.
The head of Eesti Energia, Hando Sutter, told the ERR portal about state guarantees in offshore wind energy sector. The future offshore wind investor points out that the country’s inaction prevents the effective development of projects in this sector. In Sutter’s view, the government should provide a guarantee that when the price of electricity falls below the agreed price of electricity produced in offshore wind farms, it will compensate for the difference. The representative of Eesti also indicated that in the “hectic” energy market, an investment of EUR 2 billion is too high a risk. It includes the effects related to the change in energy regulations or unfair competition on the part of Russia.
“We want to create a very competitive renewable power plant so that it can generate electricity at an attractive price over all other forms of electricity generation,” said Sutter.
It is therefore necessary to establish the so-called the minimum price by the Ministry of Economy and Communications, as reported by ERR. It turns out that the ministry believes it is not necessary. Timo Tatar from the ministry explained that the market environment should be such that projects are created without subsidies and without major obstacles. As he added, it is not the case that the state creates regulations for one investment or a given project. He added that offshore energy production is still expensive today. The investments will actually start to take place after 2030. The development of some kind of support program is now clearly premature, he said.
Competition rules should be taken into account when designing the reserve price, so producers of nuclear, solar and wind power should be treated equally. “Eesti Energia is a market participant and we do not want special treatment, we are not afraid of competition,” explained Sutter.
source: ERR
