Electricity Stats: Production Down, Renewables Increasing
Electricity production in Estonia decreased by 7 percent last year, but power from renewable sources showed significant growth, according to freshly released figures from Statistics Estonia.
The decrease was influenced by greater import opportunities, especially from Nordic countries, with the amount of power bought in from Finland tripling, Statistics Estonia said in a release today.
Imports on the whole grew from 1,690 to 2,710 gigawatt-hours.
Exports decreased by 7 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year, ending up at 4,960 gigawatt-hours
Last year's oil shale production stayed at the same level it was in 2011, but 8 percent of output was shifted from the electricity industry to the shale oil industry.
Renewable sources made up 15.8 of electricity production, up a fourth compared to 2011.
Use of wood, which makes up 68 percent of renewable sources used for electricity production, increased by a third in 2012.
The share of renewable energy in final consumption was 24.3 percent in 2011. Although new figures for 2012 consumption have not been published, it is believed that the figure is now above the 25 percent mark, the target Estonia had been hoping to reach by 2020.
A previous version of the story erroneously stated that 32 percent of electricity was produced from renewable sources in 2012.