Speaking on the "Terevisioon" morning show, Hamburg said that Estonia's core electricity system problem is that its generation structure does not match the country's climatic conditions.

Hamburg, who is also a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences' energy commission, does not believe recent energy policy decisions are necessarily the wrong path, but he is troubled by what he describes as fumbling in the sector. "We do not have a very clear goal, or we may have one, but we do not stick to it. That is the problem," the expert said.

He acknowledged that weather-dependent energy — wind and solar power — is increasing and no one opposes that. "The question is that the more weather-dependent generation we add to the system, the more controllable capacity, storage and demand and small-scale production management we must have in the system," Hamburg noted, adding that Estonia currently has no large-scale storage capacity at all.

Another major issue, in his view, is that over the past decade policymakers have pursued a principle of phasing out oil shale, yet it remains unclear why this is being done and what will replace it.

"Today, we are offering imported natural gas as a substitute. That may not be entirely the right solution," Hamburg said.

According to Hamburg, it is inevitable that more line items are being added to electricity bills, as all the additional services needed to balance the system when there is no wind or sun require investment. Those costs, he said, simply appear as new charges. For example, this year an additional 2.7 cents per kilowatt-hour has been added to bills.

Hamburg also highlighted how heavily Estonia taxes its own resources. "If we look at oil shale, more than half of its price consists of taxes. The lion's share is indeed the CO2 tax, which Estonia itself is not fully able to change. But we should certainly be at the table on the side where changes are being made. This is not sustainable," Hamburg said.

From an energy security perspective, Hamburg argued that the best approach would be to rely on domestic natural resources. "I am not saying we should build another oil shale plant, but I am saying clearly that we should review oil shale taxation and keep oil shale capacity at around 600–700 megawatts alive for at least 10–12 years — until we truly have, hopefully will have, a nuclear power plant to cover baseload demand."

Commenting on steep electricity bills in February, Hamburg said the state should find and implement a compensation mechanism to help people cope.

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