According to Minister of Climate Yoko Alender (Reform), actions in the electricity market will move forward based on earlier plans.

"We will move forward with onshore wind; reverse auctions will be announced in April," Alender noted. "We will move forward with nuclear energy, draft a Nuclear Act, and the minister of economic affairs and infrastructure will present the government with a national special planning process."

The climate minister also noted that Estonia will also be moving forward with energy storage-related plans.

"And as for offshore wind, there is the upcoming European Clean Industrial Deal, which includes several clauses addressing precisely such large renewable energy developments," she added.

Minister of the Interior and SDE chair Lauri Läänemets believes the postponement of offshore wind farms changes the entire energy deal.

"For onshore wind developers, whether or not an offshore wind farm will be built and under what conditions is crucial," Läänemets explained.

"You need to know this as you're developing your financial scheme," he continued. "If an offshore wind farm is built, the price of electricity will drop significantly and developers will earn little revenue — and they would need to know this now. This is the core issue — how participation in this reverse auction will unfold. Once announced, we'll see if anyone will participate or not."

He also believes that a reverse auction will still be held for onshore wind farm support.

"All we have is that this onshore wind reverse auction must be held; it will likely happen," the SDE chief acknowledged. "But one element has been removed, part of the electricity will go unproduced, so something else will need to replace it. The entire concept is changing. We currently don't have the certainty that offshore wind will happen. Maybe it will be something else in the future. It will be up to the Climate Ministry to make these proposals for how this will go."

According to Minister of Education and Research and Eesti 200 chair Kristina Kallas, even with the removal of the offshore wind farm support, other activities must still move forward, including the reverse auction for onshore wind farms, preparations for nuclear energy and the development of energy storage capacities.

"I don't understand the Social Democrats' argument that everything should be put on hold," Kallas said. "Because that would be quite wrong,  as Estonia still needs these energy decisions."

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