Renewable energy to overtake fossils in 2018

Renewable energy sources will exceed the level of fossil sources in Finland next year thanks to current investments, an expert said on Sunday.

Markku Alm, a senior official at the southwestern Finland development center for business and environment, told national broadcaster Yle that the newly launched bio-product plant in Aanekoski, central Finland, and the replacement of the Naantali coal burning power plant with a multi-material power plant later this year will change the situation.

Additional wind-powered plants will be starting as well, Alm added.

The current Finnish government has earlier set the target that renewable energy sources would cover half of Finnish energy production by 2030.

Ilkka Hamala, CEO of Metsa Fibre, said the company's new biomass plant in Aanekoski will increase the relative share of renewable energy by 2 percentage points.

But he warned that "biomass will simply not suffice" to keep up continued growth in renewable energy. He predicted that the growth of renewable energy sources will continue as a strong trend, but it must be based on "a wide array of various tools".

He reminded that the share of nuclear power will be important in Finland both for the energy security and with a view to repelling the climate change.

In 2016, the share of renewable sources was 34 percent and the fossil sources 38 percent. The rest was other sources like nuclear and peat.

The consumption of energy in Finland per inhabitant is the largest in the European Union. The reasons are the country's energy intense industries, cold climate and long transport routes in the wide but sparsely populated country.