Oil shale is a fossil fuel that can be burned to produce electricity and heat. The oil-containing substance is found in dozens of countries, but Estonia is one of the few nations to utilize oil shale on a large scale.
It is expensive to combat the environmental consequences of the mining and burning process. The production process requires plenty of natural resources and labour.
Oil shale is a mixed blessing for Estonia. On the good side are self-sufficiency and independence from imported electrical power. In fact, oil shale is used to produce 95 percent of the power used in Estonia. The production is therefore highly significant for the country's economy.
It has been calculated that Estonia's oil shale reserves will last for at least one hundred years. At present, over 13 million tonnes are mined annually.
On the negative side, the oil shale industry is the largest source of emissions in Estonia. The emissions also spread outside of Estonian borders in the air. In the early 1990s, over ten percent of the sulphur fallout in Southern Finland originated in Narva.
The oil shale production process eats up large areas of land, as the substance can be found only in thin layers in the earth. The excavation sites are therefore extensive.
Oil shale is not a very efficient energy source: up to half of it is left unburnt, and the process creates plenty of ash. It is expensive to landscape the mines and the hills of ashes, and many of the affected regions will never be restored to their earlier state.
The marks left by the mining and burning will remain in Estonian soil forever.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.8.2005
