More new wind turbines in Finland - 7.2 GW capacity at the end of this year
The total production capacity of Finnish wind farms is expected to increase to around 7 200 megawatts by the end of the year. The future of wind power is strongly influenced by the new government programme, whose provisions have caused some uncertainty about Finland's attractiveness as an investment environment.
According to statistics compiled in June by the Finnish Wind Energy Association, the second-largest amount of wind power capacity will be built in Finland this year. At the beginning of the year, 75 new wind turbines were built, with a total capacity of 439 megawatts (MW).
At the end of June, Finland had 1,468 wind turbines producing clean energy. This spring, new wind power was also commissioned in the S Salla and Kemijärvi regions of Eastern Lapland. A further 180 or so turbines are expected to be completed during the rest of the year.
The good momentum in wind power construction has come at just the right time when the need for domestic energy is greater than ever before.
"With new wind and nuclear capacity, Finland will finally become self-sufficient in electricity. But we are still dependent on imported energy for transport, heating and industrial energy consumption. Energy self-sufficiency requires much more electricity production, which will also enable all these sectors to switch to carbon-neutral energy sources," says Anni Mikkonen, CEO of the Finnish Wind Power Association.
It takes several years from the investment decision on a wind power project to the start of construction and electricity production. For the plants now being built, the investment decisions were taken at the turn of the decade, before the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. The industrial investment plans announced this spring will also require more clean electricity. It is, therefore, crucial that investors' confidence in Finland as a stable and secure investment environment is maintained.
"The government programme contained some rather radical-sounding but unclear entries on issues such as distance limits for wind power and obligations on regulating power and the capacity market. Even the experts do not know what these would mean in practice. This uncertainty may have repercussions for wind power andby the Finnish Wind Energy Association in June investors' confidence in other sectors, as the horns of feeling about Finland are firmly raised. Clear rules of the game and considered implementation of the government programme are now at the heart of getting the much-needed investment, jobs and vitality to Finland," says Mikkonen.
