Estonia

Country: Estonia

Document type: National Roadmap

Approved: March 2023

The Roadmap identifies three phases of industry development to 2050:

Piloting phase 2021-2030
Scale-up phase 2031 – 2035
Expansion phase 2036 -2050

The roadmap focuses on the piloting phase. The primary focus is on the development of policies, R&D, implementation of pilot projects, and improving the availability of renewable energy. Amongst other things, the ability to conduct applied research in Estonia would be increased.

Depending on electricity and hydrogen market developments, the production potential of green hydrogen in 2030 lies between 2,000 and 40,000 tonnes per year. By 2030, a minimum of 3 to 5 hydrogen refuelling stations with a capacity of about 2,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year is planned.

In the Scale-up phase, activities undertaken during the piloting phase would continue, and if technology development were to indicate that hydrogen energy could develop independent of subsidies, then pilot activities could be expanded.

In the expansion phase, if rapid development of wind farms occurred and electrolyser costs were reduced, then hydrogen produced in Estonia could be cost-effective in some applications.

The Roadmap notes that by 2026, Estonia plans to invest €49.1 million from Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funds to promote the deployment of hydrogen technologies. The Roadmap also notes that since 2022, the state has provided funding from the state budget and ETS auction revenue to IPCEI projects for R&D on pan-European value chains and to hydrogen technology companies in the total amount of €67 million. The support measures do not include any tax measures or any wider national policy objectives or levers to reduce investment costs (until the potential for hydrogen in Estonia is fully assessed).

The Republic of Estonia Ministry of Climate hydrogen webpage, including actions to boost hydrogen uptake, can be found here.

November 2024