Regional Case Study

Ida-Virumaa oil shale region is situated in North-East of Estonia and has a border with the Russian Federation.
It is a deindustrializing region that has already in the past suffered from closure of heavy and textile industries.
The region is the home for oil shale mines and conventional fossil-fuel fed power plants that meet about 3/4 of
the national electricity demand. Ida-Virumaa also differs demographically from the rest of the country. Estonians
constitute only 18% of Ida-Viru population and ethnic Russians 75% compared to the share of ethnic Estonians
around 69% and Russians around 25% in the entire country.