Estonian state-owned energy company Eesti Energia AS has secured roughly EUR 585,000 (USD 577,600) in state funding for an up to 225-MW pumped storage hydropower project at home.
The funding will enable the company to prepare the construction of the facility, which will be the first one of its kind in Estonia it said last week. The support has been allocated by the joint agency of Enterprise Estonia and KredEx.
To be installed at the site of a closed oil shale mine in Estonia’s Ida-Viru County. The proposal includes building the plant’s upper reservoir on a waste rock structure, and using the closed mine as the lower reservoir. The height between the two reservoirs will be increased by reusing waste rock from the enrichment process of rock mass from oil shale mining,
The analysis of the technical solution and the preliminary environmental studies are due to be completed at the start of 2023. The project’s preliminary design should be ready by end-2023, with an investment decision targeted in the first half of the following year.
Eesti Energia expects the pumped storage plant to be in operation in 2026. According to the company, the facility will help ensure energy security and stability of the power network. It added that the project concept can be exported to other countries.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 0.987)
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