PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Estonia Buys 110 Iveco Buses for CO2 Quota
16 Jun 2011 • by Natalie Aster
The road administration Maanteeamet has signed a contract with the Czech subsidiary of the Italian commercial vehicles manufacturer Iveco regarding acquisition of 110 environmentally friendly buses for EUR 18.9m earned from selling unused CO2 emission quota to Spain.
According to the CO2 units trade deal signed with Spain in July last year, Estonia received EUR 44m which was meant to be spent on renewable energy projects as well as on the introduction of green buses on the inner-county routes.
The buses purchased are of low emission type – Iveco Irisbus Crossway, designed for inner-city and near-city traffic. 52 buses will reach Estonia within 2011, the rest in the 3rd quarter of next year.
10 buses will be handed over to the Tallinna Autobussikoondis, the municipal enterprise of the Tallinn city government, for in-city use. The decision is based on the fact that due to lending restrictions imposed on municipalities two years ago, the municipal firm has not been able to invest.
100 buses will be used in servicing inner-county routes in the counties of Ida-Virumaa and Harjumaa, where contracts of operating local bus lines are about to end soon. The operators for buses will be found via state procurement bids.
GREEN ENERGY: Enercon Launches Ash Field Wind Park Construction
The German wind turbine manufacturer Enercon started construction of the 39 MW wind park for the stateowned power producer Eesti Energia on closed and recultivated ash fields next to Narva.
According to the agreement, reached between Enercon and Eesti Energia in summer 2010, 17 Enercon E82 wind turbines will be erected, with the production capacity of 2.3 MW each. The park will cost Eesti Energia EUR 57m to build.
The ash fields near Narva, the former dump sites of Eesti Energia's oil shale burning power plants, were closed and recultivated in 2008. The EUR 6.4m recultivation project was 84% co-financed by the EU's Cohesion Fund. The area was covered, and turned into grassland and forest.
Narva wind park will be the 2nd largest of a kind in Estonia when operational in 2012. The largest is 48 MW wind park in Aulepa, Western Estonia, to which three turbines were recently added. Eesti Energia acquired the Aulepa park in the end of 2007 (see no 242 page 12) and launched in 2009.
IN BRIEF
Elering Upgrades Submarine Power Cable
The state-owned power grid operator Elering invests EUR 12m in the construction of the new power cable between the island of Muhu and mainland. The cable is expected to be operational in 2012. At the moment, six 35 kV power cables in the bottom of the Suur Vain strait between the island of Muhu and mainland are responsible for providing all power to three islands: Muhu, Saaremaa (via the air link on the dam connecting Saaremaa and Muhu) and Hiiumaa (via the submarine link between Saaremaa and Hiiumaa).
According to the project, one of the six cables will be replaced by a 110 kV cable, the transmission capacity of which is the same as all of the other cables together. In addition, the power link on the dam between Muhu and Saaremaa will be duplicated as well.
The above news abstract has been taken from a bi-weekly newsletter to professionals doing business in Eastern Europe "news2biz - Energy and Environment".
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