estonia-2030_en

egional energy production – in addition to oil-shale energy. This will improve the overall energy securityand allow local energy resources (solar, wind, biomass and Earth heat) to be exploited better.Also, more decentralised energy production and exploiting of local resources will create long-termjobs in towns and rural areas. As this is relatively costly, a reasonable balance needs to be struckbetween decentralised energy production and concentrated large-scale manufacturing.More than in the past, integrated energy-production solutions need to be introduced, combiningseveral energy sources and enabling the co-generation of heat and electricity. In the future, a significantquantity of energy will be produced at co-generation plants at de-centralised locations, utilisinglocal resources (including biogas).Some of the most important sectors where energy-production capacity is based on local renewableresources are wind energy and bio-energy. Wind energy is characterised by short-term and seasonalchanges in production capacities, not always coinciding with variability in consumption; however,given Estonia’s good wind potential, vigorous development is very likely to continue in this sector inthe near future, which presumably may involve also marine areas.Energy generation at wind farms presupposes the availability of ways of offsetting it. For this, strongconnections to external networks and a network of rapid-response compensation plants or storageplants need to be developed.Estonia’s western coastal waters are suited for the construction of offshore wind farms. Based on theresult of investigations conducted for the identification of suitable areas and given the specific characterof every individual region, offshore wind farms may be planned via county plans, providing thewind farms with sufficient distance from small islands, preserving heritage and nature-conservationassets, and migration corridors and habitats for species. The construction of offshore wind farmsneeds to consider national-defence interests. Thematic plans need to be based on an integratedapproach to balance the interests of various sectors in the utilisation of offshore and coastal areas.Specifically, due to the natural conditions and national-defence requirements, Estonia’s northerncoastal waters, Lakes Peipsi and Võrtsjärv are not suited for the construction of wind farms.On land, the construction of wind farms should target first and foremost former mining areas, otherareas remaining outside active human use and areas permitting wind energy to be utilised in integratedsolutions. On land, preference should be given predominantly to the construction of smaller andmedium-size wind farms (up to 20 wind turbines), permitting energy production and its fluctuationover time to be distributed better.45