Enefit Green is building a unique solar park in Estonia Mine’s industrial area
On Friday, 30 December, Enefit Green made an investment decision to start building a solar park in the industrial area of the Estonia Mine in Ida-Virumaa. The solar park with a capacity of nearly 3 megawatts is the first in Estonia to be located on a platform built from waste rock.
A 27-metre-high structure was built for the solar park on a mine site from waste rock generated during oil shale extraction. This allows to reduce losses due to shadowing and thereby makes electricity production more efficient.
According to Enefit Green's Renewable Energy Project Manager Elise Johanna Lill, the solar park is the second one the company is building in an industrial area. “Pre-mined areas, as well as other low-value lands, are very suitable for building solar power plants. The development of renewable energy in industrial areas serves several environmental purposes. For example, it offers the opportunity to use waste rock generated during mining as construction material and to supply the mine with green energy,” Lill said.
Lill adds that the establishment of Estonia Solar Park is part of the company's growth plan to significantly increase their output of renewable energy. “Enefit Green will quadruple its green electricity production capacity in the coming years. Solar energy has great growth potential for us in the Baltic and Polish markets. Next year, we plan to make investment decisions for the construction of large-scale solar parks in Estonia and Lithuania with a total volume of over 200 megawatts,” Lill noted.
The capacity of Estonia Solar Park will be nearly 3 megawatts and the company will invest up to €2.7 million to build it. Construction of the solar park will begin in the first half of next year, and the park is scheduled to begin production in early 2024.
Enefit Green is currently building four wind farms and three solar parks in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Finland with a total capacity of 258 MW. In addition, the company has made investment decisions in this quarter for the construction of new production units to the extent of 336 megawatts with an investment of nearly €450 million.