Energy production and consumption

The consumption of energy per person in Finland is relatively high. Underlying causes are the cold climate, sparse population, long distances and heavy nature of industry. The increase in consumption of energy has slowed down and it may stop growing in the future. The total energy consumption in Finland was 0.99 million terajoules ( TJ ) in 2012 which is 5 % less than the previous year.

According to statistics of 2012, Finland produced 67,7 TWh of electricity. Nuclear power accounted for the largest share 32.6% (22 TWh). The next largest electricity source was hydro power with 24.5 % (16.5 TWh) of the total production. The third largest share was for biomass with 14.9 % (10.1 TWh). 41 % of the total production was from renewable sources. After the big three comes coal with 10.2 % (6.9 TWh), natural gas with 9.3 % (6.3 TWh), peat with 6.2 % (4.2 TWh), waste with 1.1 % (0.75 TWh) and finally oil with 0.5 % (0.3 TWh) share.

Still, although Finland sounds very green, the country is not self-sufficient in terms of electricity. Electricity imports covered 20,5 % (17.4 TWh) of Finland’s total electricity consumption. Finland is very dependent on Scandinavian and Russian energy markets In the future Finland aims to concentrate on increasing its self-sufficiency in energy production. It is expected that it will be non-fossil fuel based. Renewable energy forms and biofuels are a hot topic.

Bioeconomy

Finland is one of the top countries developing technologies for the bioenergy supply chain. Forestry machine manufacturers have developed new technologies for harvesting small-dimensioned wood and logging waste. One of the new and innovative methods is the bundling of logging waste, an effective solution for large-scale forest chip production, which increases efficiency of energy wood harvesting, improves biomass supply security, and also reduces emissions from logistics chain.

Finland is one of the world's leading user of bioenergy and developer of combustion technologies and effective fuel chains. One of the innovations, the fluidized-bed combustion boiler for solid biofuels, has reached a substantial share of the world's industrial boiler markets.

Nuclear power

The two already functioning nuclear power plants in Finland were built in the 1970s and 1980s. The four units were taken to higher level of use in the 1990s after the positive experiences and some maintenance which improved the general safety.

In 2012, the share of nuclear energy was about 26% of all electricity generation in Finland. The total power of the 4 nuclear power units was 2 736 MW. The units are located in the southern and western coast, in Loviisa and Olkiluoto. Currently, construction of Olkiluoto Unit 3 is on the way, although construction has been delayed by many years. Fennovoima announced that they will build a nuclear power plant to Pyhäjoki but the preparation and investment decision is still a long way from completed.