The total amount of electricity provided to the network by connected producers last month increased by nearly 14.7 gigawatt-hours, or 20 percent, on year, but decreased by nearly 2 gigawatt-hours compared with June.

Capacity provided by solar power plants peaked at 339.4 megawatts in July, up nearly 80 megawatts on year, but down 10 megawatts compared with the previous month.

Elektrilevi CEO Mihkel Härm said that during times of high electricity prices, it's entirely understandable that Estonians' interest in solar energy production is immense, however in order for more renewable energy to be able to be sold to the grid, the power grid's capacity must be increased.

"An additional €55 million needs to be invested in order to resolve the biggest issues," Härm explained. "If we want to be able to guarantee microproducers' connection [to the grid] at a reasonable price throughout Estonia, however, we'll have to invest €300 million in the power grid in the next five years. The €8 million allocated to Elektrilevi from the supplementary budget is certainly a step in the right direction and will help connect nearly 4,500 solar energy producers to the grid."

Connection applications submitted in July:

• electricity producers over 15 kilowatts: 225 applications with a total capacity of 77.4 megawatts
• microproducers, i.e. up to 15 kilowatts: 1,046 applications with a total capacity of 12.8 megawatts

Electricity producer connection contracts concluded in July:

• electricity producers over 15 kilowatts: 28 contracts with a total capacity of 23 megawatts
• microproducers, i.e. up to 15 kilowatts: 387 contracts with a total capacity of 4.4 megawatts

Electricity producer connections completed in July:

• electricity producers over 15 kilowatts: 64 connections with a total capacity of 14.8 megawatts
• microproducers, i.e. up to 15 kilowatts: 555 contracts with a total capacity of 6.3 megawatts

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