An Estonian company is building the largest wind farm in the Baltics, using European Union support to promote green electricity, energy independence and the local economy.
Lauri Ulms (Lauri Ulm) heads wind energy development in Finland, the Baltics and Poland at Enefit Green, the leading energy producer and developer in the Baltic region and a subsidiary of the Eesti Energia group. For more than ten years he has invested his work and energy in building the country's largest onshore wind farm, Sopi-Tootsi, which he fondly calls his "baby". For Ulms this project is not just about generating electricity; his aim is to help build a sustainable future for Estonia.
"When I started working with wind farms, they were seen as outdated relics of the old subsidy scheme, and developing them was not popular," says the Enefit Green manager. "Now the situation is changing, and our project is the best example of that."
The Sopi-Tootsi project began in 2012, when a peat quarry was closed in the south-eastern Estonian municipality of Põhja-Pärnumaa. Local officials and Eesti Energia saw this as an opportunity for change. They envisaged using the site for renewable energy generation. With 38 turbines, Sopi-Tootsi will be the most powerful wind power plant in the Baltics. Once the project is complete, the wind farm will be able to supply electricity to more than 197,000 households a year. "The farm will provide green electricity to almost a tenth of Estonia's electricity consumers," Lauri Ulms points out.
The European Investment Bank is supporting Enefit Green with a €180 million financing agreement signed in September 2023. This is just one of many investments in Estonia made by the European Union's financing institution. Last year €540 million was invested in Estonia, equivalent to almost 1.4% of the country's gross domestic product – a larger share than in any other European country.
Further information
About Enefit Green
Enefit Green is one of the leading renewable energy producers in the Baltic Sea region. Its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange and the company has more than 63,000 investors. Enefit Green owns wind farms in Estonia and Lithuania, cogeneration plants in Estonia and Latvia, solar parks in Estonia and Poland, a pellet factory in Latvia and a hydroelectric power station in Estonia. The company is currently building five wind power plants and three solar parks in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Finland, with a combined capacity of 608 megawatts.
About the European Investment Bank
The EIB is the European Union's long-term lending institution, owned by the EU Member States. The EIB Group has adopted the Climate Bank Roadmap to deliver on its ambitious agenda of supporting €1 trillion of investment in climate action and environmental sustainability in the decade to 2030, and of devoting more than half of EIB financing to climate action and environmental sustainability by 2025. Under this roadmap, all new EIB Group operations have been aligned with the goals and principles of the Paris Agreement since the beginning of 2021.
The EIB and Estonia
Since 1993 the EIB has financed projects in Estonia worth a total of €3.95 billion. In 2022, EIB Group financing of almost €172 million was signed for Estonian projects, mainly in support of public infrastructure, healthcare, small businesses and innovation, including support for Estonian Railways, E-Piim and Icosagen. In June 2023 the EIB backed public sector investment in Estonia with a €300 million loan to finance the transition to a green and digital economy.
The EIB and security of energy supply, REPowerEU
In 2022 the EIB Group signed more than €17 billion in new financing agreements to support the energy transition in the European Union. This record figure demonstrates the EU bank's commitment to securing access to sustainable energy at a time of great uncertainty. Our investments are helping Europe overcome the crisis caused by the sudden interruption of gas supplies following Russia's brutal and unjustified attack on Ukraine.
In May 2022 the European Commission launched the REPowerEU plan to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and accelerate the green transition. The EIB agreed to support REPowerEU by raising the Group's clean energy financing to an unprecedented level between 2022 and 2027.
The EIB earmarked €45 billion for projects aligned with REPowerEU. This financing comes on top of the substantial support the EIB has already provided to the energy sector.