Major Finnish investment in bioenergy

The Finnish power company Pohjolan Voima is increasing its biomass facilities. The company is adding five new plants to the already existing four, putting Finland further ahead as the leading European nation in this field.

When the new wood and peat-fuelled power stations are commissioned, Finland’s consumption of wood chips will double from the current figure of 700,000 cubic metres.

The power stations being built are next to the large paper and pulp mills in the towns of Jakobstad, Kokkola, Jämsänkoski, Kuusankoski and Ristiina. However, the new power stations won’t only fill the energy demands of forest industry. A new kind of joint project between the forest industry and power companies has resulted in the formation of joint companies. Various communities also play a pivotal role in the projects.

The sum being invested in the new Pohjolan Voima facilities is FIM 2.5 billion. nib participates in the financing of four of these power stations, contributing a total of slightly more than half a billion FIM. The plants are expected to be commissioned by 2002 at the latest.

Publicity concerning the new generation of power stations has primarily focused on Alholmens Kraft in Jakobstad. Its output of 240 mw makes it the biggest plant of its kind in the world, according to Senior Vice President Kauko Relander, who is in charge of Pohjolan Voima’s fuel procurement.

Despite the magnitude of these projects, oil and nuclear power remain more important sources of energy than wood, peat and hydropower. Kauko Relander says, “I think the energy sources are gratifyingly versatile. The same goes for Finland’s energy policy.”

The Ministry of Trade and Industry estimates that electricity demand in Finland will grow by 13 TWh by 2010. How that demand is met will, to a great extent, depend on the policy choices the EU and Finland make regarding energy and the environment. One important energy policy issue concerns a possible expansion of nuclear power. Pohjolan Voima and its subsidiary, Industrins Kraft, are campaigning. Pohjolan Voima’s task is to produce and procure electricity and heat as cheaply as possible for its owners.

It is currently estimated that woodchip energy can fill a gap of 3 TWh between the anticipated electricity demand until 2010 and the anticipated supply. Finnish power companies can benefit from exporting energy from the biomass facilities. Kauko Relander says, “We know how to manufacture boilers and customise entire power stations, which enables us to export as well. For example, we’re working with a major project in Milwaukee in the USA.”

The company continues its research and development in the unceasing search for new ways to produce energy. “One of the things we’re doing is investigating the possibilities of converting town fuel produced from dry refuse as well as municipal and industrial waste into gas. This can be burned with coal in the old coal-fired power generating plants. The first project for gasification plants has already started in the town of Vantaa, north of Helsinki,” says Kauko Relander.

If 23 per cent of a coal-fired power station’s fuel input is replaced with gasified town fuel, emissions can be brought down to the same level as if the plants were running on natural gas. Gaining acceptance for modern energy thinking in a large corporation like Pohjolan Voima isn’t easy.

Kauko Relander explains, “This is primarily because investments in the energy industry are very long term. We should be able to forecast what global energy needs will look like in 2030.” He admits that the Finns have failed to fully exploit the PR potential of the bioenergy projects. “If this project had happened in Sweden, all Europe would know about it,” he says.

Relander quotes a revealing example of Finnish modesty. He describes how a leading eurocrat in Brussels proudly proclaimed that Europe was already capable of manufacturing biomass boilers with an electricity output of 10 or 20 mw. “When I said we were making boilers with an output of 240 mw I had to show them our drawings before they’d believe me,” says Relander.

The Renewables Programme of the Ministry of Trade and Industry assumes that the use of chips in energy production can be raised to five million cubic metres annually. Kauko Relander believes that this can just about be achieved, as long as nothing in the forest is wasted – including knot wood, which is expensive and mainly gathered by hand, and comes to 1.5 million cubic metres.

For Pohjolan Voima the most profitable proportion is to build its biomass power stations close to paper and pulp mills. “The essential requirement is for collection and transport of the raw material which both the factory and the power station depend on to form part of the same logistical chain. Collecting the raw material more than 100 km away from the power station would be too expensive, because timber waste is so porous,” says Kauko Relander. He maintains that, technically speaking, wood and peat are a very good energy combination.

“If the price of chips goes up, we can use more peat, and vice versa. The problem with peat is that it produces carbon dioxide when burned. For that reason, some people maintain that peat isn’t a real biofuel, just ‘a slowly renewable biofuel’.”

Increased use of natural gas is often equated with wind and hydropower, bioenergy or refuse gasification. Kauko Relander says that natural gas is not a competitive raw material today, which is why Finland’s latest and technically most sophisticated natural gas plant has only been running for a few days this year. He says, “Things will change, of course, if a diminishing supply increases the price of electricity.”

Relander describes the present day situation in the energy sector, “In the mid- 1970s, I moved from a labour market organisation to the energy industry. Energy in those days was a fairly tranquil industry, with its machines and turbines turning. Basic stability, dependability and continuity were the main considerations in those days. Instead we have perpetual movement now. We need to lead development and understand how the world situation will look in the future.”