On Tuesday, April 1, Finnish energy group Helen Ltd shut down the country's last coal-fired thermal power plant, Salmisaari, in Helsinki.
This is reported by Reuters.
The company's CEO Olli Sirkka said that this will reduce the group's emissions by 50% compared to last year and put an end to the rise in electricity prices for its customers. The executives expect that the overall average price for consumers for district heating will decrease by an average of 5.8% this year.
In practice, this means the end of the coal era and increased self-sufficiency in Finnish energy production.
The capacity of renewable energy sources (RES) in Finland has grown rapidly over the past few years. The sharp decline in coal use came after the previous government passed a law in 2019 banning coal from 2029.
To replace the annual production of 175 MW of electricity and 300 MW of heat at the Salmisaari plant, Helen will use electricity, waste heat and heat pumps, and will continue to burn pellets and wood chips, the company said.
Photo: reuters.com.
“In the long term, we intend to completely abandon combustion,” Sirkka said.
He added that by 2030, the company intends to reduce emissions by 5% from 1990 levels, and by 2040, to completely abandon combustion.
The CEO also noted that despite the clean transition, Finland has the third cheapest electricity in Europe after Sweden and Norway.
Environmental campaigners Beyond Fossil Fuels note that Finland's phase-out of coal is “almost complete” as two small power plants in other regions of Finland still use coal in their operations, and a third coal plant remains in strategic use in case of emergencies or peak loads on the grid.
As a reminder, the UK shut down its last coal-fired power plant at the end of September 2024.
