Utilitas produced 94% of its energy from renewable sources in the third quarter

Estonia’s largest renewable energy producer, Utilitas, produced 217 GWh of green energy in the third quarter of this year, which is 94% of the group’s total production.

In total, Utilitas produced 230 GWh of energy in the third quarter of this year, of which 142 GWh was heat and 89 GWh was electricity. Compared to the same period last year, production increased by 18 percent.

Utilitas now faces the second winter of the energy crisis with the knowledge that combining fuels is the best solution in this season and that the company has focused on stocking up on different fuels. “The situation in the fuel market is still extremely volatile and both prices and availability change every day, but as most of the heat consumed by Utilitas’ customers is produced from wood chips or waste heat, we can cover the rest by combining different fuels,” confirmed CEO of Utilitas Group Priit Koit.

In this difficult situation, all Europeans, including Estonians, need to contribute to reducing energy consumption. Utilitas’ customers have set a good example, and the sales of heat have decreased in the third quarter by 17 percent compared to the same period last year.

As a long-term solution to the energy crisis, Utilitas sees the addition of new renewable energy capacities. The company plans to invest in the development and construction of such capacities throughout the region. In Latvia, Utilitas opened Latvia’s largest wind farm in mid-September, which adds 155 GWh of green electricity to the market annually with its 14 modern turbines.

“We see wind energy as the fastest way to tackle the energy crisis in our region, as well as to solve security and climate issues. The construction of an onshore wind farm takes about a year, and an offshore wind farm takes two years. The wind conditions here are ideal when we need electricity the most, i.e. in the autumn and winter. The construction of wind farms in the region has been stalled so far mainly due to regulations, and we are glad to see that countries have taken steps to speed up this process,” added Koit.

In Estonia, Utilitas is building a wind farm with nine wind turbines in the Saarde municipality in Pärnu County, which should start producing electricity in the summer of next year. In addition, Utilitas is actively engaged in the development of onshore and offshore wind farm projects in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which are in various stages of development.