Estonia profile

Overview

In 2018, the final energy consumption in Estonia was about 2.87 Mtoe. Residential, the largest consuming sector, recorded a 5.7 percentage points decrease in its share of total final energy consumption since 2000 – from 39% to 33%. Industry decreased its share by 6.8 percentage points – from 24% down to 17% in 2018. Over the same period, the transport sector share increased by around 5.7 percentage points and tertiary and agriculture by 4.9 and 1.9 percentage points respectively. In 2018, the final energy consumption was approximately 19% higher compared to its 2000 level.

Energy efficiency for final consumers, as measured by ODEX, improved by an average of 1.9% per year from 2000 to 2018. In industry, the pace of energy efficiency improvements has been steady (4.7% per year since 2000) and in the transport sector about 1.2% per year. For the other sectors, energy efficiency improvement was lower: 1.1%/year for households and 0.5%/year for services.

Regarding energy efficiency, Estonia has set a target by 2020 not to increase the total final consumption as compared to the year 2010, when the consumption was 2.91 Mtoe. In 2018, the final energy consumption in Estonia was 2.87 Mtoe, i.e. the consumption has increased by 1.1%. Today’s level of final consumption of energy in all sectors, and the forecast for the next ten years shows that the greatest growth as well as need for sectoral measures for saving electricity, motor fuels and other fuels will be in the households, industrial and transport sectors. In the new National Development Plan for the Energy Sector, the Government has committed to keep the final consumption lower than 2.75 Mtoe per year in 2030. Maintaining the final consumption at the 2010 level means that energy efficiency must be increased in nearly all sectors, but particularly in the household, industrial, transportation and public sectors. It is planned to pay special attention to the public sector energy use as the behaviour of the public sector must serve as a role model for other sectors.

Buildings

In 2018, space heating accounted for 59%, water heating for 16%, cooking for 17% and electricity consumption of appliances for 9% of the sector’s consumption. While  the energy consumed by electrical equipment increased by about 0.4%, the energy used for cooking by 4.2% and the production of hot water by 1.4%, the energy consumed for space heating decreased by about 6%. Overall, the energy consumption in the residential sector increased by about 3.5% between 2000 and 2018. However, the energy consumption of space heating has decreased from 18.2 toe in 2000 to 14.4 toe per heated m2 in 2018.

In 2018, the final energy consumption of residential buildings was 0.015 Mtoe higher than in 2000. On the one hand, energy savings contributed to decrease energy consumption over the period (about -0.20 Mtoe). However, all other factors (more dwellings, lifestyles: more appliances per dwelling and larger homes) have, unfortunately, pushed up the energy consumption of the residential sector.

The electricity consumption per employee has increased by 63% since 2000. The reason is the introduction of new buildings with conditioners and the wider use of other electrical equipment. The final energy consumption in the service sector has been rather stable since 2008, following the same trend as number of employees.

Up to now, the energy efficiency policy in the buildings sector has been targeted mainly at households through various measures that increase energy efficiency of residential buildings. The Government has decided that investing into buildings for improving the energy efficiency must continue, while the public sector must lead the way in maintaining and constructing buildings. Investments into the energy efficiency of apartment buildings must be continued as well and opportunities to expand state measures for promoting energy efficiency in family houses are to be found. In the heating sector, investments into the development or renovation of district heating systems are supported. Drawing up local development plans for energy supply in municipalities are financially supported by the central Government. Also, it is planned to support local, as alternatives to district heating, heat supply systems if these prove to be the most sustainable solutions for the region and ensure compliance with environmental standards.

Transport

In 2018, road transport accounted for 97.1% of the total energy consumption of the transport sector. Compared to 2000, the share of road transport in the entire transport sector has increased by about 6.8 points. The share of rail transport has decreased from 8.1% in 2000 to 1.9% in 2018. The share of air transport has remained the same at 0.2% and the share of water transport has decreased (0.5%).

In 2018, the passenger traffic volume of buses increased by 6% and the one of rail transport by 48% compared to 2000. The passenger traffic of private car was for 13 billion passenger kilometers in 2018, which is approximately 95% higher than in 2000.

There was a sharp decrease in the carriage of goods by rail – from 8.1 Mtkm in 2000 to 2.6 Mtkm in 2018. The freight volume of Estonian road transport enterprises almost doubled (5.8 Mtkm in 2018 versus 3.9 Mtkm in 2000). The high share of road in the total traffic is a trend going against the expectation of policymakers.

In 2018, energy consumption in the transport sector was 56% higher than in 2000. This trend is mainly due to the increase in passenger traffics (+0.24 Mtoe) and changes in the structure (higher share of private cars and road freight in traffics that pushed up consumption by 0.1 Mtoe). These effects are higher than energy savings effects (-0.12 Mtoe).

Up to the present, the primary instrument for influencing energy use in the transportation sector has been excise duties, and the fuel excise has been raised on ten occasions during the last 17 years. The Government has decided to foster the use of cars with lower fuel consumption and environmental impact. Projects aimed at improving energy efficiency in the transportation sector have been implemented under the green investment scheme. The consumption of energy by the transport sector is planned to be reduced through three lines of activity: decreasing the need for transport, including making freight transport more efficient and environmentally sustainable and considering sustainable commuting principles in the planning process; increasing the use of public transport and making vehicles more ecological.

Industry

Final energy consumption of industry has decreased significantly by 0.9%/year over the period 2000 to 2018. Approximately 1/3 of the energy is consumed by the energy intensive industries – non-metallic minerals and paper. The importance of the remaining energy intensive industries (chemicals, non-ferrous metals, steel) in the Estonian manufacturing industry are small.

The most energy-intensive industries in Estonia are the cement and paper industries. The energy consumption for the production of a unit of cement decreased by about 2.4% per year and for unit of steel by 2.1% per year. The same trend is also in the production of paper. The share of iron and steel in the total energy consumption of the manufacturing industry is marginal.

Energy savings (-0,51 Mtoe) as well as structural changes towards less energy intensive branches (-0.21 Mtoe) led to decrease the energy consumption since 2000. On the opposite, the growth in activity has partly offset the saving effect. As a result, energy consumption has decreased by 0.083 Mtoe over the period 2000-2018.

It has been estimated that in industry, there is the potential for a 30% of heat and 10% electricity conservation and attaining; this will require adoption of new technologies and an increase in awareness. The focus of energy efficiency in industry must be on the development of energy and resource efficiency. The measure designed to inform industrial companies about the potential for energy savings and resource efficiency as well as to analyse resource use has been launched.