The production of heat energy, meaning district heating, fell by 15 percent over the same time frame, the agency said.

In 2023, Estonian power plants produced 5,686 GWh of electricity and 4,323 GWh of heat energy.

Helle Truuts, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the fall in electricity production was due to a significant drop in oil shale consumption.

She said: "The amount of electricity generated from oil shale fell by nearly 40 percent in a year, accounting only for a third of the total electricity production."

"In the previous year, 2022, more than half of the electricity was generated from oil shale," Truuts noted.

 While the volume of electricity generated from renewable sources remained at 2022 levels, it accounted for half of the total electricity production.

The largest share of renewable energy production came from wood sources, at 46 percent of the total.

Wind and solar energy each accounted for nearly a quarter of renewable energy production.

Year on year, solar power generation increased the most, by 16 percent.

 A total of 20 percent of electricity was produced in co-generation, which allows for a more economical use of fuel, Statistics Estonia said.

Combined heat and power (CHP) plants produced 1,167 GWh of electricity and 3,800 GWh of heat, though compared with the previous year, both electricity and heat production fell here too – by 16 percent and 13 percent respectively.

CHP plants produce electricity and heat from a variety of fuels.

The largest contribution to energy production, measured in terajoules, came from wood fuel

More detailed data is available from Statistics Estonia here.

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