Minister of Energy and Environment Andres Sutt has said that the Reform Party's coalition partner Eesti 200 still does not really believe there is room for additional wind farms in Estonia and that they therefore should not be procured through a reverse auction. What is your position at this time?

The question is whether bringing additional wind farms online under a contract-for-difference support mechanism would actually lower electricity prices without large-scale storage. Even today, we see that prices are high during peak periods, when the weather is very cold. If the wind is not blowing at that moment, then the question is whether additional wind capacity on its own would actually bring prices down — that is what we would like to have an answer to.

We have not seen calculations at a level of detail that would give us confidence that if we proceed again with a support measure for building wind farms, it would genuinely affect the price for consumers and bring it down — meaning the investment would be justified without storage. If storage is developed at the same time, then storage itself would cut those peak prices, because electricity could be stored and used when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining.

What is the financial scale of this support measure for taxpayers?

It is very difficult to predict because it depends on how many so-called peak periods there are. At one point, it was estimated that the maximum volume for both offshore and onshore wind would reach into the billions. But the upper limit would likely be in the hundreds of millions if consumers ultimately have to subsidize electricity production because market prices are low.

Looking back at what happened with electricity prices in January and February, was there anything we could have done in real time? Or are we simply in a situation where we have expensive spot-market electricity and oil shale plants were operating only partially, with some of them still unable to enter the market?

This is not a case of expensive spot electricity — we simply do not have enough electricity that is not weather-dependent. In such cold weather, when the wind is not blowing, we are heavily reliant on imports from countries that have more stable generation or where the wind is blowing. That is our concern. The arrival of gas-fired power plants has been long awaited — hopefully they will begin coming online and start influencing prices. This is the result of many years of delayed decisions and insufficient investment.

When could the government's support measure for onshore wind farms be introduced? Is it possible that it may not be introduced at all?

No, I do not think that will happen. It should go hand in hand with the development of a bank guarantee mechanism for large-scale storage. If the government procures the construction of this wind capacity on the market, then a guarantee measure for large-scale storage must be ready at the same time.

This is to ensure that the investments being made will genuinely bring prices down — without storage, we do not have certainty that prices will actually decrease.

What is the cost of the storage guarantee measure?

It is a state guarantee provided for bank loans.

This dispute also reflects relations within the coalition. Since you have so few seats together in the Riigikogu, in some sense you are each other's hostages.

No, I do not think that is the case at all. Andres Sutt promised to send us those calculations and we will review them. If his claim is indeed correct — that additional wind energy would lower prices even without large-scale storage — and Tallinn University of Technology has reportedly conducted such a study, then it would make sense to make the investment. If that is not the case, then large-scale storage must be developed in parallel.

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