"We invested significant time and resources into the opportunity to develop a green methanol production project in Pärnu. At this moment, partly due to the market situation, we have decided to focus our resources on other projects, which led us to suspend the project in Estonia. We are grateful for the valuable support, strong cooperation, and supportive business environment received in Estonia," the company wrote in a press release issued Friday.

The Estonian government had presented the potential development as a major investment into Estonia, meant to bring clean industry and contribute to the development of renewable energy.

Kaido Koppel, head of Pärnu city government's planning department, said the company, Power2X, did not give any reason in its communication on the decision, sent in May.

"On May 7, we got a message that the project will be discontinued, that the investors are no longer interested in funding it," Koppel said.

"We have only received this short email from a company representative, in which they said the project will be halted. We haven't received any further information. Certainly, this decision is not pleasant, but the good news is that thanks to the wind park theme and the overall rise of wind energy, there are many interested parties who want to develop various industries in other locations, albeit on a smaller scale," Koppel added.

Power2X also informed the Ministry of Economic Affairs of their decision. Deputy Secretary General for Planning at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Ivan Sergejev, said: "They wrote to us in fairly laconic terms that the plan is going on pause for now, and that was that."

"They said the reason is a combination of different things, and that was basically all they could say at this point. Apparently, there is some kind of complex calculation behind it — why a particular investment is considered promising or not at a certain point in time, from the businesses' perspective — but you would really have to ask the company for that," Sergejev went on.

Sergejev noted that sometimes such projects naturally do not come to fruition "Of course, it was disappointing to hear that the plans had changed, but I understand that this is a complex project, and the business must consider whether they are giving it up completely, or if this is just a pause, or how they intend to proceed. In any case, we are very interested in seeing such investments come to Estonia."

Power2X announced the plan last spring. The planned facility, in the Niidu industrial zone, would have produced up to 500,000 tonnes of green methanol per year, creating 200 jobs, with production to start in 2028. The company was due to make its final investment decision at the start of next year.

An additional impact analysis was supposed to be submitted to the city of Pärnu in spring this year, but this was not done, given the cancellation.

Editor's note: This article was updated to include comment from Power2X.

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