Eesti 200 head would like minimal offshore wind subsidies
Kristina Kallas, chair of the Eesti 200 party and minister of education, said on the "Otse uudistemajast" webcast that she would prefer as little support as possible for offshore wind farms. According to her, there is currently a heated debate on this issue within the government.
"A good example of where the Estonian state has completely missed the mark in terms of future outlook is the matter of energy," said Kallas. "Today, we are struggling, and our economy is suffering catastrophically due to very high energy prices. This is because ten years ago, we simply refused to make decisions, everything was left undone."
According to Kallas, there is now a concrete plan for energy, but the current debate in the government revolves around how much taxpayer money should actually be invested in energy. She noted that Eesti 200's position is that the amount should be as small as possible.
"As small as absolutely possible. We should not set the goal of producing as much so-called green energy as possible, more than what is needed for Estonia's domestic consumption. In principle, we are subsidizing exports and corporate profits with Estonian taxpayer money, and that certainly should not happen," Kallas stated.
"We are currently debating the volumes of reverse auctions and the amounts that the state will guarantee. The Social Democrats would like to provide support to as many as possible, while we argue that it should be as little as possible – just enough to cover what is necessary for domestic consumption so that we do not end up subsidizing corporate exports," Kallas explained.
She mentioned that she had asked the minister of climate to bring concrete calculations to Thursday's cabinet meeting, specifically showing how the price of electricity would be guaranteed. "What electricity price are you guaranteeing with these subsidies? We haven't seen these numbers or calculations yet. So I'm expecting those figures in the cabinet," Kallas said.
"Have they actually calculated, specifically, that if we fund and support such and such amounts with taxpayer money, the result will be a certain electricity price? Where are those calculations? Only based on that can we make smart and informed decisions? Today, we're almost making decisions based on gut feeling – maybe we'll subsidize this amount of reverse auctions, and maybe then the electricity price will go down. You can't make decisions like that," Kallas said.
"In the case of these offshore wind farm reverse auctions, we have clearly stood for the idea that the state should subsidize as little as possible, and only for domestic consumption," Kallas added.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Marcus Turovski