Estiko Energia, an Estonian energy company, has opened a solar park of 74 MWp at Raadi, on the edge of Tartu. According to Invest in Estonia, the company put more than EUR 40 million into the project, which the agency describes as one of Estonia’s largest solar developments
.
The park was built on 106 hectares of a former military airfield. Before the panels went up, the land had to be cleaned: old structures were taken down, waste and tyres were removed and contaminated soil was dealt with. The company says the preparation and construction together took close to eight years.
The park was built in two phases. The first, finished in summer 2024, was connected to the local distribution network. The second and larger phase is connected directly to the national transmission grid. Estiko Energia estimates that the output is enough to cover nearly half of the yearly electricity use of private consumers in Tartu.
A battery storage system of 20 MW is planned for February. The company intends to use storage to even out consumption peaks and to sell electricity at the hours when it is worth more.
For readers who follow Estonia as a place to do business, the project is one more sign that large private investments in energy are being completed outside the capital region as well.
Source: Invest in Estonia — the original story. The text above is our own summary; the words in quotation marks are the source's.