In late August, Lääneranna Municipal Council ended the detailed planning process for the Alaküla Lodu solar power plant after three auctions for building rights on the municipal property failed to attract any bidders.

Deputy Mayor Henrik Raave said the lack of interest reflects a broader decline in demand for new solar parks, with developers now showing greater interest in data centers, battery storage facilities and wind energy.

"We've also been asked where in our municipality, in the Lihula area, it might be possible to build a data center, for example, because we have very good electricity connections. The Estonia-Latvia power line will run through here and we also have a green energy component in the form of existing solar and wind parks," Raave said.

The municipality now plans to divide the property, excluding protected green areas near Matsalu National Park, and initiate a new detailed plan for the section along the highway. Raave said the land could instead accommodate a data center or a similar industrial facility.

River Tomera, head of renewable energy development at TSO Elering, said waning interest in solar parks has been evident for several years. Estonia has installed solar capacity equivalent to nearly one and a half times the country's summer electricity consumption, he said, affecting electricity prices and reducing returns for producers.

"The market probably doesn't need any more standalone solar parks. However, solar parks are still being built as hybrid facilities together with energy storage technologies or perhaps in addition to wind parks where combining them with another technology can still make them profitable. But the pace has definitely slowed — that is clear — and solar parks have not received subsidies for six years now," Tomera said.

Tomera said that looking ahead, it makes more sense to build solar parks in locations where there is also a nearby consumer able to use the electricity they generate.

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