OREANDA-NEWS. March 20, 2013. Approximately one-half of the respondents in the survey conducted by TNS Emor are aware of Enefit's investments to bring its oil shale production into line with today's requirements. Of informed respondents, 76% support investment in oil shale power plants.

Enefit's major challenge is to make the current, mainly oil shale-based, electricity generation greener and, thereby, preserve the current generation capacities in the long term.

"To this end, we are pursuing several important development projects. For example, the power plants in Narva invested approximately EUR 110 million in scrubbing flue gases of sulphur emissions, in order to make the generation of electricity from oil shale greener and to also ensure the preservation of generation capacity after environmental requirements become stricter," says Raine Pajo, Member of the Management Board at Enefit.

According to Pajo, the restriction that came into effect in 2012 reduced permissible sulphur emissions more than two-fold – from 60 000 tonnes to 25 000 tonnes a year. Thanks to the new sulphur treatment equipment, sulphur dioxide emissions into the ambient air dropped approximately three-fold. Production of electricity from oil shale became cleaner after the equipment was installed, while the production capabilities of Estonia's major electricity generating undertaking will also be preserved at current levels.

Also in 2012, installation of lime dosing equipment began to achieve the required levels of flue gas treatment irrespective of the quality of the oil shale burned. Lime systems will be completed in 2013. By 2016, equipment to cut nitrogen emissions will be installed additionally at the energy units of four power plants in Estonia. This allows emissions of nitrogen oxides into the air to be reduced up to two-fold.

To reduce its environmental impacts, Enefit is actively working with science and research agencies, developing its production processes to be greener and allocating resources for the maintenance and rehabilitation of mining areas.

One thousand one hundred randomly chosen people, between the ages of 15 and 74, participated in the TNS Emor survey completed in January.