Last year electricity exports enlarged the production

In 2007 more than 2,700 gigawatt hours of electricity was exported to foreign market. About half of the exported electricity was transmitted through the Estlink sea cable to Nordic countries. Exports to Latvia increased 1.5-fold compared to 2006.

During the last years also the generation of electricity from renewable sources has increased. In 2007 compared to 2006, the wind energy production increased by a fifth and hydro energy production nearly two times. Still the share of renewable energy accounted for only 1.5% of the total electricity consumption.

In connection with the generation of electricity on the basis of domestic resources the energy independency rate in Estonia is high. With regard to the production of electricity per capita, Estonia is one of the leading countries among the EU Member States. 90% of electricity is produced from local oil shale. In relation to the growth of oil shale production also primary energy production increased about 17% in 2007 compared to the previous year. Since 2000, the production of shale oil has also been increasing continuously. More than half of the production is exported — mainly to the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Latvia.

The consumption of mainly domestic resources increases the independency of energy, but also contributes to the energy intensive economy. During the last years energy intensity of economy — the consumed energy to the GDP — has been decreasing, but remained about four times more energy intensive than the EU average. Only Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania are more energy intensive than Estonia.

In 2007 compared to 2006 the total energy consumption grew over 10%. Of imported fuels, the consumption of motor fuels increased most (8%). The increase in the number of cars and in the distance travelled brought along a bigger consumption of motor gasoline and gas diesel oil in road transport. The consumption of natural gas has stayed almost on the same level as in the previous years. In 2007 compared to 2006, the consumption of electricity increased 4%.

Production and exports of electricity, 2003–2007