Rain Epler: In the priority development of renewable energy, there are more than answers

In the long term, the negative impact of an electricity grid created via the support of subsidies and benefits is that controllable and high-efficiency production capacities remain either not built, or when built, their construction is significantly more costly, writes former environment minister Rain Epler (EKRE).
At a time when Germany and, in fact, the entire European industrial sector is in decline, largely due to poor decisions made in energy policy, the coalition in office in Estonia has opted not to learn from others' mistakes.
If plans to prioritize the development of wind and solar energy production capacities indeed go ahead, the result will not be favorable electricity prices or a developing industry. Quite the opposite: Estonia's competitiveness will decrease significantly.
Last week, Climate Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) presented bills before the Riigikogu committees and plenary session in the main hall, aimed at accelerating the construction of electricity production capacities from renewable sources.
Michal discussed plans to purchase 4 Terawatt-hours (Twh) of electricity from offshore wind farms plus 4 Twh from onshore farms, via a tender process. The discussions revealed several interesting, if not outright scandalous, details.
How much does it cost to reprioritize renewable energy development?
At a state budget control select committee session held on March 4, I asked the Ministry of Climate Secretary General Keit Kasemets about the cost of constructing the electricity network using the wind energy production as introduced by Michal through a planned tender process.
Kasemets replied that the cost of repurposing and strengthening the network to this end is €360 million. One day later, the head of the same ministry's energy department countered this answer, then we learned that the construction of the Paide-Sõrve electric cable, necessary for connecting the offshore wind farms and misleadingly called the "fourth connection" between Estonia and Latvia, would come to at least one billion euros in cost.
At the same session, I asked whether [grid distributor] Elering has any plans to use congestion revenues, aimed at eliminating bottlenecks in the electricity grid, to cover the costs of constructing this so-called Estonia-Latvia fourth connection, while Secretary General Kasemets responded that this fee would not be put towards that connection's construction.
A few days later, during a discussion on a matter of national importance at the Riigikogu, Elering's CEO, Kalle Kilk, made the opposite statement. Yet we know that the bottleneck for us is in the north, and connections to the south will only exacerbate that. I am waiting for a clearer stance from the Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) on the use of congestion revenues for such ends, and a statement that such a use of funds is not allowed.
These are but two instances of how officials and politicians juggle numbers to implement their ideological plans. In addition to this, the public is being misled thanks to a whole range of false claims and half-truths.
Cheap renewable energy is like free public transport: Both work out as expensive
The simplest way to investigate the validity of that claim is to look at the experience of other countries.
Germany promoted renewable energy for about 20 years and doubled its electricity production capacity, yet it was revealed, upon the closure of the Russian gas pipeline (NordStream – ed.), that wind and solar energy were insufficient to meet Germany's industrial operation needs.
In addition to needing to import natural gas from elsewhere, coal power plants had to be rapidly reactivated. Neighboring Denmark, which has also long developed wind energy, is competing with the Germans for the title of the nation with the world's most expensive electricity
As we have also been seeing in Estonia, in order to get many renewable electricity production and storage options on to the grid, society must stump up large sums of money.
Unfortunately, the current legislative-administrative framework is constructed in such a way that these costs are concealed and are largely collected through taxes, fees, and charges, resulting in a deceptively low price reflected on the monthly electricity bill.
In the longer term, the negative impact of an electricity grid created with the support of subsidies and benefits is that controllable and high-efficiency production capacities remain not built, or their construction becomes significantly more expensive. This is due tot he fact that weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels make electricity prices appear very cheap at certain times, while at these times, other power stations have to halt their operations.
Don't spit in the old well before the new one is ready, in short.
Despite the fact that in Europe and elsewhere, there are still countries continuing the priority development of renewable energy under the influence of the malaise of what is called this green transition, signs of a return to common sense are already visible. There are increasingly more examples of renewable energy projects being abandoned, and the call to strongly focus on the development of nuclear energy worldwide is getting louder.
Estonia possesses both oil shale reserves and very good knowledge and skills for its deployment in energy. This means it makes sense for us to use this resource for our energy security and electricity availability over the next 10 to 15 years. Even those opposed to the use of fossil fuels should agree with this, as the alternative to oil shale is also natural gas, ie. a fossil fuel, but which we have to import from long distances.
The rational continuation of using oil shale energy is the move towards the adoption of nuclear energy. Let us not let money blow away with the wind, or burn up in the sun. If we now steer towards solutions whose efficiency matches our growing energy needs, we can indeed have a hope that Estonia's competitiveness will rise, and the people's living standards will improve with that.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kaupo Meiel