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Today, the Foresight Centre presented the report ‘Active Consumers in the Future Energy System’, which reveals that electricity management potential reaches 400MW in Estonia, exceeding the capacity of the Auvere power plant. The realisation of this potential is based on the assumption that electric cars and heat pumps become more widespread.

There are nearly 10,000 households in Estonia that both consume electricity from the distribution grid and produce electricity for the distribution grid. The calculations of the Foresight Centre indicate that on 130 days a year on average, the amount of energy supplied to the grid by households is greater than the amount of energy taken from the grid. In the case of prosumers who are legal entities, the amount of energy supplied to the distribution grid is greater than the amount consumed 96 days a year.

According to forecasts, the amount of electricity produced in households will triple by 2035, which on the one hand increases the energy independence of Estonian households and reduces the environmental impact of electricity production, but on the other hand increases the need for controlled production capacities and transnational connections, states the Foresight Centre in its short report ‘Electricity Producing Households in Estonia’.

Households that join together in a cooperative to produce electricity will be able to cover a significant part of their own electricity consumption in the future, reducing the costs for households and increasing security of supply says the new report from the Foresight Centre on the outlook for energy cooperatives in Estonia.

Ukrainian refugees from the war have integrated in the labour market in Estonia more successfully than they have in those in other countries, but there remains room for improvement in matching the qualifications of those arriving from Ukraine with appropriate jobs concludes a report published today by the Foresight Centre on how Ukrainian refugees have affected employment and the economy.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of Estonian economy and ensure sustainable development, we need to increase our investments into developing green technologies. Estonia’s weak point is that the state support for research and development in local businesses is inadequate and erratic, shows the Foresight Centre report “Green Transition Trends and Scenarios in Estonia”.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 32,000 people have registered their residence in Estonia and war refugees make up around 2.2% of the Estonian population. According to the Foresight Centre brief report “The Burden of Municipalities in Hosting Ukrainian War Refugees”, the share of refugees in the population and the burden relating to hosting them varies considerably from one municipality to another.