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This month, Estonia officially opened its biggest renewable energy facility. The Sopi-Tootsi wind and solar park in Pärnu County is a €400 million investment that will make the national grid greener and more resilient.
The Sopi-Tootsi renewable energy area combines wind and solar power on a site that was once a depleted peat deposit. The facility features 38 towering wind turbines, each 241 meters tall (nearly 800 feet), alongside approximately 112,000 solar panels that can capture sunlight from both sides.
Together, these installations will generate more than 770 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually–enough to power about 200,000 households and cover roughly 10% of Estonia’s total electricity consumption. This makes it the largest renewable energy site in Estonia and the country’s largest wind farm.
The project uses cutting-edge renewable energy technology. The wind turbines use Nordex N163/6.X models with 80-metre blades, while the solar installation spans 95 hectares and uses 660-watt panels with bifacial technology that captures light from both sides.
The facility’s environmental impact is also noteworthy. Compared to coal-fired electricity generation, the park prevents nearly 700,000 tons of CO₂ emissions from entering the atmosphere each year.
Importantly, the project brings tangible financial benefits to the surrounding area. Under Estonia’s national local benefit model, the Põhja-Pärnumaa municipality receives between €300,000 and €600,000 annually, with payments tied to the wind farm’s production and electricity prices.
Residents within 2 kilometres of the wind turbines can receive up to €4,350 annually. Additionally, Enefit Green offers reduced electricity costs through direct line connections for large consumers within a 6-kilometre radius of the substation.
Estonian Minister of Energy and Environment Andres Sutt highlighted how far the country has come in renewable energy development. When the Tootsi wind farm was first planned in 2012, it would have produced just 200 gigawatt-hours annually. The final project delivers more than three times that amount, demonstrating rapid technological advancement. “We have got a much more powerful, modern and state-of-the-art generation capacity,” Sutt noted during the opening ceremony.
