Energy in Finland

Overview

There was no sustainable decline in CO₂ emission in Finland during 1990–2007. The energy use decline 2008–2009 is based on recession and at least some paper industry factories relocation abroad. The annual changes of CO₂ emissions of Finland were in some years 7–20% during 1990–2007. Increase of emissions was 18% in 1996 and 20% in 2006. The peat energy use and CO₂ emissions per capita had correlation in 1990–2007.

The share of electricity generated from renewable energy in Finland has been stable from 1998 to 2005: 11 to 12 percent plus yearly changing hydropower, together around 24 to 27 percent. The RE of total energy has been 24 percent (1998 to 2005). The forest industry black liquor and forest industry wood burning were 57 percent (1990) and 67 percent (2005) of the RE of total energy. The rest is mainly water power. The most of available hydropower for energy is already in use.

Consumption

Final consumption of energy - ie. after losses through transformation and transmission - was 1 102 petajoules, which equals 202 gigajoules per capita in 2013. Of this, 46% is consumed by industry, 16% in transportation and 25% in heating.

Energy consumption per capita in Finland is the highest in EU. Reasons for this include energy-intensive industry, a high standard of living, a cold climate and long distances. Rise of energy consumption stopped in 21st century, mainly due to changes of industry. There is now less heavy industry and the energy efficiency has improved. New energy consuming business is the data centres of international enterprises.

Energy consumption increased 44 percent in electricity and 30 percent in the total energy use from 1990 to 2006. The increase in electricity consumption 15,000 GWh from 1995 to 2005 was more than the total hydropower capacity. The electricity consumption increased almost equally in all sectors (industry, homes, and services).

Industry

Among all industries, the heaviest users are paper and pulp industry, metal industry, oil refining and chemical industry.

The forest industry uses 30 percent of all electricity in Finland (1990–2005). Its process wastes, wood residues and black liquor, gave 7000–8000 GWh RE electricity in 2005. In the year 2005 this and electricity consumption fell 10% compared to 2004 based on the long forest industry strike.

Heating

Energy consumption for heating has increased, when population and average size of homes has grown.

80% of the energy use of households was spent on heating in 2008–2011.

Transport

Transport uses 30% of all energy, but 40% of the energy produced with oil. Consumption per kilometre has decreased, but amount of kilometres has grown.

The Kyoto agreement had obligation to restrict the traffic emissions in Finland between 2008–12 in the year 1990 level. According to Ministry report in 2004 the share of public transport in Finland is lower that in the most European countries.

Export and import

In 2014, the energy products import was worth 10 billion euros.

In January to September 2016 the import of energy products was worth of 5 billion euros, 15% less than the year before. The biggest source was Russia, 64% of all imports. Export was worth of 2.8 billion euros, one percen more than the previous year. 78% of export went to OECD countries. Decrease of price of petroleum products has affected the decrease of value of imported energy.

Electricity

In 2009 the consumption of energy sources in electricity generation by mode of production was: 28% nuclear power, 16% hydro power, 13% coal, 11% natural gas, 5% peat and 10% wood fuels and other renewables. Net imports of electricity in 2009 were 15%. In 2011, 16% of electricity consumption was derived from imported electricity.

European Commission (EC) demanded for Finland a €32,000-day penalty from the Court of Justice of the European Union in March 2013 for not implementing the electricity directive in time.

The share of electricity generation from renewables in Finland was 40% 2012 and target 33% by 2020. In comparison, unlike Finland most countries have target to increase the share of electricity generation from renewables from 2012 to 2020 in Europe as:

Global warming

n 2008, Finland's greenhouse gas emissions totalled 70.1 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2e). A little over three quarters of them were based on energy or released from the energy sector.

The carbon dioxide emissions by fossil fuels in 2008 originated from 45% oil, 39% coal and 15% natural gas. In the year 2000 the shares were nearly equal: 48% oil and 37% coal. The fossil traffic fuels: motor petrol, diesel and aviation petrol are oil products. The biomass included 47% of black liquer and 52% of wood in 2008. These shares were practically same during 1990–2006. All biomass and agricultural warming gas emissions are free of charge in the EU emissions trading in 2008–2012. According to the official statistics the annual fossil fuel and coal emissions in Finland have large annual variation. E.g. the fossil fuel CO₂ emissions dropped 18% in the year 2005 and 13% in 2008, but the annual coal emissions increased 22% in 1996, 22% in 2001 and 58% in 2006.

According to the energy statistics the major changing factors for the annual emission changes were the consumption of coal and peat. In 2006 the hard coal increase was 92% subject to industry (including energy producing industry) separate electricity generation from hard coal. At the same time the controversial peat consumption was increased. The district heating used 42% of hard coal in average 1990–2006, but its annual variation was small compared to the industry separate electricity generation.

Particulates

Particulate, the size of which is from a few nanometers to visible dust particles, are considered the most important environmental factor affecting human life. About half of particulates are of anthropogenic origin: traffic, industry and energy production. In Finland, the most important source is burning wood as fuel. Also the NO2 and SO2 gases become particulates in the atmosphere.

Energy policy

The objective of RE (2005) of electricity was 35% (1997–2010). However, (2006) the Finnish objective was dropped to 31.5% (1997–2010). According to 'Renewables Global Status Report' Finland aims to increase RE only 2% in 13 years. This objective to add the RE use with 2% in 13 years is among the modest of all the EU countries.

The public energy subsidies in Finland in 2013 were €700 million for fossil energy and €60 million for renewable energy (mainly wood and wind). An increased feed-in tariff was used for new wind power industry in 2011 to 2015.