On 7th September 2022, FICE Board met the Minister of the Environment, Madis Kallas and discussed the last FICE Executive Survey results.

Minister brought out the current priorities of the government, which are national security, education in the Estonian language, and measures to control the energy crises and inflation caused by the Ukrainian war.

Temporarily, it’s impossible to reduce the woodcut in Estonia because of the energy needed. Likewise, power production from shell oil in Ida-Virumaa helps control the energy crisis.

The government is considering using national security to get sustainable energy projects (wind, solar) to circumpass delays by court cases and protests of environmentalists and local habitats.

The government will support households financially to get people through the crisis. One option is to change the energy bills to loans.

The Minister visited an energy storage project in Paldiski and was optimistic about the results.

FICE expressed concerns about the high costs for sustainable energy projects to access the electrical grid. The Minister explained that significant infrastructure investments are needed to enable the peaks in energy supply caused by solar and wind parks. These investments are unreasonable because these peaks are temporary, and electrical cables would be much bigger than usually needed. Systems to stabilize the output of the constantly changing energy production are needed.

FICE expressed its wish to see structural investments in green energy production and stimulate companies and households to invest in sustainable energy solutions like solar, heat pumps, and energy storage solutions.

FICE expressed its wish to balance direct support and investments in structural solutions for the energy crisis. Direct support will not solve the problem structurally and will raise inflation.