"An incorrect document has been distributed from the Ministry for Climate. It has not been and is not the basis for government or coalition decisions. The correct calculations and foundations are included in the explanatory memorandum of the draft submitted to the government and were previously presented by the Climate Ministry's energy department," she said in a written comment.

"The correct calculations, which serve as the basis for our fundamental decisions, were prepared by experts from the Ministry of Climate's energy department using an analysis commissioned by Elering, baseline data from the auditing firm Aurora, and calculations from TalTech," the minister added. "I apologize that erroneous data were sent out by the Climate Ministry."

At the same time, the ministry declined to disclose the so-called correct data.

"Comprehensive calculations, already referenced and commissioned by Elering, exist for decision-making and debate within the government, but they are protected under a confidentiality agreement. I have asked Elering to determine whether we can fully disclose these assumptions. If not, we will prepare an additional analysis that can be published in full," Alender noted.

The climate minister issued this statement after ERR published an article based on a memo, which suggested that government coalition politicians had misled the public by claiming that wind farm subsidies would significantly reduce electricity prices.

The article and the ministry's memo said that the previously estimated electricity price of 14.9 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2035 could only be achieved if large amounts of wind power were developed without subsidies, if the third Estonia-Finland offshore connection, Estlink 3, and the fourth Latvia-Estonia offshore connection were also completed.

If only the government's planned wind farm subsidy scheme of up to €2.84 billion were considered, the electricity price reduction would be just 0.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, and the overall societal electricity price reduction would not cover the subsidies paid to wind farms.

Alender stressed that external connections would be built using external funding and congestion fees collected by Elering.

"The energy analysis correctly assumes that external connections, such as Estlink 3, will be built using congestion fees and external funds. This is also the basis for the information provided to the government. Claiming that this has not been taken into account is nonsense and misleading," the minister wrote.

Additionally, the minister said that more electricity generation capacity is being built in Estonia than what the state is supporting.

"Energy capacities are always developed beyond what any auction can cover. Today, there is already storage capacity on the market, and the largest storage park in mainland Europe is under construction, driven by market forces," she noted.

Although Alender claimed the data in the memo were incorrect, she repeated the electricity exchange price of 4.9 cents per kilowatt-hour mentioned in the memo. This should not be confused with the final electricity price, which is significantly higher.

"The projected average electricity exchange price, based on Elering's commissioned study for 2035, will fall below 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour if we hold the auctions and to 4.9 cents per kilowatt-hour if we also build Estlink 3. If we do not do these things, the price will remain around 8 cents per kilowatt-hour," Alender stated.

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