Utilitas is building Tallinn’s largest solar park with a capacity of 9.3 MW in Väo energy complex. It will be named the European Green Capital Solar Park.
„Cities generate ca 70% of the world’s carbon footprint, which is why the green transition in the cities is particularly important. Tallinn is the European Green Capital in 2023 and its program is based on the desire to implement projects with a long-term impact. It is important to us to that our investments make the environment greener. The new solar park will directly help to reduce Tallinn’s carbon footprint, and since the investment decision was made this year, we decided to name it the European Green Capital solar park," said Priit Koit, CEO of the Utilitas group.
The solar park has a capacity of 9.3 MW. It consists of 15,600 panels and covers a total of 11 hectares in the territory of the former Väo limestone quarry. Double-sided solar panels are combined with single axis trackers, and thus the period during which the solar park produces electricity is extended. Utilitas invests 8 million euros in the construction of the new solar park.
In order to make the urban environment greener and to improve the quality of people’s working and living milieu, nearly 5,000 trees will be planted in the western, northern and eastern sides of the solar park. Utilitas has already started preparatory construction works and the solar park will be completed in April next year.
The new solar park complements the already existing Väo energy complex of Utilitas, where green energy is produced in two combined heat and power plants, and in one smaller solar park. Next year, both green hydrogen production, fueling station and heat storage solution will be added to the complex. The most efficient and greenest energy system is one, where production and consumption are located as close as possible to each other, and different types of energy such as heat, electricity and fuels are produced together.
Estonia’s largest renewable energy producer, Utilitas, produced 2.4 TWh of energy in 2023, 69% of which came from renewable sources. The production of green electricity in the group increased by 11% in a year, while the production of wind electricity increased by 2.5 times, reaching 203,000 MWh.
Utilitas Group companies have wind farms with a total capacity of 122 MW, which are already operating or will reach their full capacity at the beginning of this year. Last autumn, the modern Saarde wind farm, which has the largest production capacity in Estonia, started operating. A wind farm in Aseri, with two wind turbines, is also nearly complete.
“We have added a significant amount of new capacities to the region’s electricity network, which contribute to ensuring a reasonable price, security of supply, and a cleaner environment. In district heating, we were already able to reduce the price of heating all over Estonia last spring thanks to the lower price of our main fuel, i.e. wood chips. To restore their competitiveness, Estonian companies urgently need a larger amount of green energy, primarily in the industry but also other sectors,” explained Priit Koit, CEO of the Utilitas Group.
Active accession to Utilitas’s efficient district heating system continued last year. A total of 133 buildings were connected across different cities in 2023, including new buildings and those that were converted from another heating method. For example, a bread manufacturer, Leibur, business quarter Arter, and Omniva''s head office joined Utilitas district heating last year.
The European climate monitoring service Copernicus announced that globally 2023 was the hottest calendar year on record. In Europe, temperatures were higher than the long-term average for 11 months of the year. Estonia stood out with an exceptionally long summer, which means that May was already hot and sunny, and September broke the historical heat record. However, the annual heat consumption of Utilitas customers remained the same as the previous year because the autumn months and December were colder than average.
Being a vital service provider, Utilitas prioritizes the security of supply, which in addition to ensuring fuel stocks, means modernizing heating networks. In 2023, Utilitas built and reconstructed nearly 26 kilometers of heat pipelines. The most significant works occurred in the city center, the Kristiine district of Tallinn, and the city of Maardu. As of now, Utilitas has replaced approximately 70% of the entire heating pipeline system, with the goal to reach 100% by 2035. In addition, nearly two kilometers of district cooling central networks were installed in the center of Tallinn.
Utilitas, Estonia’s largest district heating company and leading producer of renewable energy, expanded the Väo renewable energy complex with new energy production equipment, thanks to which 30,000 t of CO2 per year will not be emitted.
In the Väo energy complex in Tallinn, green energy is produced by two high-efficiency combined heat and power plants and a solar park. This year, second-level flue gas condensors, heat pumps, an electric boiler were added to the stations, and the largest solar park in the city of Tallinn was completed. These new energy production equipment make it possible to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels.
According to Priit Koit, CEO of the Utilitas Group, only by investing consistently is it possible to make the energy used in cities even more environmentally friendly and reduce dependence on imported fuels.
Tallinn has set a clear goal of becoming a climate-neutral city by 2050, and according to the Mayor of Tallinn, Jevgeni Ossinovski, the fastest effect will be achieved by completely transferring the district heating system to renewable fuels.
“Man-made climate change is the biggest long-term threat to the Estonian state and people, which is why the transition to a sustainable energy system is not an option among others, but an inescapable need. Most of the greenhouse gases is emitted in cities, mainly from the energy consumption of buildings and by private cars. Tallinn is pleased that our district heating partner Utilitas shares our goal of climate neutrality and is investing in new climate-friendly technologies to achieve this goal,” said Ossinovski.
With the help of flue gas condensors and heat pumps added to Väo CHP plants, the flue gas temperature leaving the cogeneration plant is lowered from 50 to 20 degrees in order to use up all of the energy contained in the fuel. The introduction of new equipment makes it possible to significantly reduce the use of natural gas in the Tallinn district heating network, as more green energy can be obtained from Väo stations.
The new solar park, named after the European Green Capital, covers a total of 11 hectares in the area of the former Väo limestone quarry and consists of 15,600 bifacial solar panels with a production capacity of 9.3 MW. To extend the production period of solar energy, the panels are placed on a special frame, which allows them to follow the movement of the sun. In addition, the natural environment of the former mine will also be restored around the solar park, and nearly 5000 new trees were planted on the site.
Last night, the highly anticipated environmental prize was presented in the Finnish city of Lahti, the respective winner in 2021. Tallinn beat competition from Krakow, Poland; Sofia, Bulgaria and Helsingborg, Sweden to be recognised as a pioneer in sustainability across the continent.
After applying to the awards twice already and just missing the top spot each time, the Estonian capital reached the end of its long, hard-fought journey. The city follows in the footsteps of previous green winners including Stockholm, Hamburg, Oslo, and Lisbon.
Tallinn''s mayor Mihhail Kõlvart, took to the stage at the grand Sibelius Hall in Lahti to accept the award with a sense of humour. Tucking away his speech in favour of an improvised version, he said, "We may not look happy, but that''s how we are in Estonia," describing his culture as typically "not very emotional".
At the same ceremony, the European Green Leaf Awards were also presented – a sister award for smaller cities of under 100,000 people. This year the city candidates were Bistrița, Romania; Elsinore, Denmark; Gavà, Spain; Treviso, Italy; Valongo, Portugal and Winterswijk, The Netherlands.
Two cities were deemed to be winners, Valongo and Winterswijk, who received prize money of €200,000 each and both made heartfelt speeches. For many attending, the achievement of being crowned green capital was not only a chance to win a lucrative investment, but evidently a boost for local pride too.
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