TSO Elektrilevi's large-scale investments in Saaremaa and Hiiumaa will add additional capacity to the islands' power grid over the next few years, enabling the connection of more solar parks.

"The bottleneck in electricity production occurs during the summer. When there are many electricity producers in one area, the voltage in our grid rises too high. If a line operates at 35 kilovolts, with an allowed margin of plus 10 percent, that limit had already been exceeded before the investments. Looking at 2024, Saaremaa consumed just over 150 gigawatt-hours, while about 60 gigawatt-hours were produced locally — that's over 40 percent of electricity produced on-site," said Elektrilevi CEO Mihkel Härm.

"We continue to issue offers — that's our obligation — but until major investments are made across Saaremaa, unfortunately, it won't be possible to connect everywhere at a reasonable cost," he added.

Meanwhile, Hiiumaa has faced a complete standstill for three years when it comes to connecting new solar parks to the grid at a reasonable price.

However, a new submarine cable being installed this summer between Saaremaa and Hiiumaa by Elektrilevi is expected to restore electricity production capacity for Hiiumaa residents.

"This issue should be resolved by the end of this year, once the new submarine cable between Saaremaa and Hiiumaa is completed. The new cable will increase both consumption and production capacity for Hiiumaa," Härm said.

"We've been in discussions with Elektrilevi to ensure that the situation doesn't end up where a few large solar parks take up all the new capacity. We'd like households and small producers to also have opportunities — or ideally be given priority," said Hergo Tasuja, mayor of Hiiumaa Municipality.

The major boom in solar park construction has certainly passed. From 2,000 solar energy producers in 2019, Estonia had grown to more than 13,000 by the end of 2024. In Saaremaa alone, more than 30 new micro-producers will soon join the existing 500, even as solar parks connected to the grid may actually produce negative returns during the daytime. This, in turn, extends the payback period for investments.

"I think earning profits is no longer really feasible for small parks. It's better to review your own consumption and adjust your behavior accordingly. Among my acquaintances, we've discussed that if you tweak your usage and incorporate smart management, realistically you're looking at a payback period of around 10 years," said Jalmar, a solar park enthusiast.

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