According to a report from ERR, high electricity costs in Estonia have rendered the processing of new firewood stocks financially unviable.
Estonia is facing a shortage of dry firewood during an exceptionally cold winter, as reported by the news portal ERR. The outlet added that the situation is worsened by skyrocketing electricity prices, which have made it uneconomical to process new supplies.
This winter has seen some of the most severe temperatures in approximately 25 years, with overnight lows dropping to minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 F).
“At the moment we only have fresh wood; we don’t have any dry left,” sawmill owner Taavi Rada informed ERR. He further clarified that after a series of mild winters, the demand for seasoned firewood was insufficient to warrant keeping large inventories of dry wood.
Tarmo Kamm, a local resident with over three decades of experience drying firewood, told the outlet that the cost of seasoned wood had risen too high, causing people to choose less expensive, unseasoned wood.
However, burning unseasoned wood, which contains a high level of moisture, creates a large amount of smoke and provides considerably less heat. Firewood generally needs to dry for up to two years to achieve an ideal moisture content of below 20%.
ERR also linked the shortage to consumers purchasing supplies ahead of time. In February of the previous year, the Estonian government advised citizens to stock up on essential goods, including “heating materials,” due to concerns over potential power outages as the country readied itself to disconnect from the Russian electricity grid. This move was part of a broader EU initiative to sever long-term energy connections with Moscow.
The Baltic nations argued that reliance on the Moscow-controlled grid posed a risk if Russia were to use its electricity supply as a weapon and cut them off. These concerns have not come to pass.
Following the disconnection, electricity prices in Estonia and its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Lithuania, almost doubled.
As ERR pointed out, increasing electricity costs have unintentionally played a role in the firewood shortage.
“The electricity price is so high that right now there’s no point in sawing and splitting using electricity. I can saw in advance with a [petrol] chainsaw, but I still have to split with electricity. It’s a four-kilowatt motor – you do the math,” Kamm said to ERR.
Wholesalers verified to the outlet that briquettes and pellets are also scarce, since their manufacturing process is highly electricity-intensive.