Production of electricity from renewable sources in Estonia grew last year by 13% compared to 2010, Statistics Estonia reports. During the last five years the share of electricity produced from oil shale has decreased by nearly a tenth while electricity production from renewable sources has grown eight times, the statistics agency observed.
Wind energy output increased last year by nearly a third, hydro energy production by more than 10%, and the production of electricity from biomass by more than 5% in annual comparison. The share of electricity generated from renewable sources in the total electricity consumption increased from 11% to 13% during the year.
Estonia's electricity output totalled 12,893 gigawatt-hours, 1% less than the year before. Consumption contracted by 4% year-on-year, amounting to 7.1 terawatt-hours. Smaller consumption and increased gross domestic product has reduced the energy intensity over 7% compared to 2010.
Estonia remains a large-scale exporter of electricity. In 2011 production exceeded consumption by 60%. The export of electricity increased by more than 20% year-on-year. The share of electricity exported to Latvia and Lithuania grew by 30%.
Oil shale production totalled 18.7 million tons last year, an increase of 4% against the previous year. The growth was mainly due to the increase in the production of shale oil. At the same time the production of other fuels declined. Due to smaller external demand the production of peat, peat briquettes and wood pellets decreased by nearly a tenth compared to 2010.
At the end of 2011 the electricity price per kilowatt-hour for the household end consumer averaged 0.1 euros. Due to the increased cost of the network service the price of electricity grew by 3.8% during the year. The price of electricity in Estonia is one of the lowest in Europe.