Energy
In recent years, Estonia’s primary energy supply has stabilised after years of decline during the 1990s. Since 2000, the annual growth of the total primary energy supply amounted to an average 2.5%. The main source of energy is oil shale, followed by gas, automotive fuels and biomass. The largest consumers of final energy are households (41%), industries (23%) and transportation (19%).
Heating
Heating is an important part of Estonia’s energy supply. More than 20% of the total primary energy consumption is used for the production of heat, in heating plants and cogeneration plants. There are thousands of boilers in use in Estonia, in which different kinds of fuels are combusted for the production of steam and hot water. This heat is supplied to industry, to buildings, or distributed among households through one of the many district heating networks in the country.
Next to centralised heat production, a large amount of fuels is used for direct heat production, in industry but also in homes, shops and other dwellings.
Bioenergy
As more than half of the Estonia’s territory is covered with forests, biomass is an important primary energy source. The use of wood fuels increased relatively rapidly in the first half of the 1990’s, and it continues to grow. In 2005 the consumption of biomass fuels was 24.4 PJ, or 11.3% the total supply of primary energy. Wood fuels are by far the major source of renewable energy in Estonia.
Firewood comprises the major share of wood fuels consumption. The share of refined wood fuels, such as briquettes and pellets, is still marginal, in spite of a quite large production capacity. The development of the share of wood-based fuels in the total primary energy supply.
Biomass for Heating
The role of biomass is most dominant in the heating sector. Of the 4000 boilers that are used for heat production in Estonia, about one fifth are suitable for biomass combustion. The share of biomass in the total energy supply for heating is growing continuously, from less than 10% in 1997 to more than 20% in 2005. Figure 3 shows the growth of the share of biomass in the period 2000-2005.
Biomass Resources
The main source of biomass in Estonia is forestry and forestry industry. The area of forestland in Estonia is 2.27 million ha, i.e. 51.9% of the total area (excl. Lake of Peipsi). There has been a rapid increase in forest area and growing stock of stands during the last 60 years – the area has increased 2.5 times and the growing stock 4.2 times. Forest area has increased as a result of the afforestation of unused agricultural lands, but also due to the drainage of bogs between 1960–1980s. During the last decades the forest area has increased through natural regeneration of former agricultural lands. It is estimated that this process will continue in the near future, as the agricultural market is shrinking and Estonia needs less area for traditional farming.
The volume of growing stock on forestland is 451.5 million cubic meters. Of stand types, pine stands/forests have the largest area of growing stock. The estimated annual increment of Estonian forests is 11.5-12.5 million cubic meters.
The estimation on annual biomass resources in Estonia is presented in Table 1. The greatest potential is related to forestry: firewood together with harvesting residues make approximately 36 PJ. The solid industrial residues include waste from sawmills, but also from wood processing industry. Black liquor is an industrial by-product that is available and utilized in one pulp plant only.
|
Resource
|
PJ
|
|
Firewood
|
20
|
|
Harvesting residues
|
16
|
|
Industrial waste (solid)
|
18
|
|
Black liquor
|
1
|
|
Other biomass
|
10
|
|
Refined wood fuels
|
4
|
Table 1: Estimate of annual biomass resources in Estonia. The data are based on different sources, which reflect mainly the expert opinions of several authors.
The theoretical potential of primary energy content of non-conventional biomass (i.e. excluding wood fuels) has been assessed by several authors. According to these expert opinions the very approximate annual volume of this resource could be 45-50 PJ (see Table 2). It has to be noted that this is a theoretical potential, the utilisation of which has not yet started. The deployment of these resources depends mainly on economic feasibility.
|
Resource
|
PJ
|
|
Straw
|
5.5
|
|
Energy plants
|
40.5
|
|
Reed
|
2.0
|
Table 2: Estimated potential of non-conventional biomass in Estonia
