Estonia awards building permit to 550-MW pumped storage project

• Estonia's Energiasalv has protected authorization for the construction of a 550-MW underground pumped-hydro storage plant, to be the first large-scale center of its kind in the Baltic nation.

Energiasalv, possessed by a company regulated by its chief executive officer, Estonian energy group AS Alexela as well as Baltic-Polish renewable energy firm Sunly AS, on Tuesday claimed it intends to release building works in the summer of following year.

The Zero Terrain project envisages the construction of an underground center in Paldiski, northwestern Estonia, which will be capable of storing 6 GWh of power during a single cycle of 12 hrs. The "water battery" will certainly provide electrical energy to the grid when wind and also solar power generation is reduced. According to Energiasalv, the stored electrical power will certainly go beyond the average day-to-day electricity intake of all Estonian households.

The following step in the project is to hold a pre-qualification procedure for the construction purchase, set up for the start of February. The programmer intends to complete the tender by the end of this year.

Zero Terrain has been proclaimed an EU Project of Common Interest (PCI project).