Companies, municipalities reduce energy consumption

In 2017–2023 companies, municipalities and joint municipal authorities that had joined the energy efficiency agreements took a total of 27,000 measures through which they have improved the efficiency of their annual energy consumption by about 14.8 TWh.

These energy efficiency measures reduce Finland’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by more than three million tonnes, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Tuesday.

“It is truly great that with these agreements we have succeeded in further improving the efficiency of energy consumption,” Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen said.

A total of 784 companies and their over 7,600 places of business and 161 municipalities and joint municipal authorities had joined the voluntary energy efficiency agreements for the years 2017 to 2025.

Energy use in sectors that are committed to the agreements accounts for about 60% of Finland’s total energy consumption.

The entities that joined the agreements invested as much as EUR 1.5 billion in energy efficiency between 2017 and 2023.

The most substantial investments in energy efficiency were in industry and the energy sector, but quantitatively the largest number of individual energy efficiency measures were taken in the service, real estate and municipal sectors.

Between 2017 and 2023 the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment granted about EUR 145 million in energy aid for energy efficiency investments of companies and other entities that had joined the agreements. Aid was granted to about 1,400 projects that would not have been implemented without it.

Entities that joined the energy efficiency agreements have set for themselves a quantitative energy savings target in accordance with the agreement that they should reach by the end of 2025.

The sum of the targets to improve the efficiency of energy consumption of those who had joined the agreement at the end of 2023 has already been exceeded by about 20%.

Energy efficiency agreements are based on voluntary action. Through these, nationally significant results have been achieved. The savings achieved during the current agreement period accounts for as much as four per cent of Finland’s total energy consumption.

“Negotiations between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Ministry of the Environment and Energy Authority and the sectors are currently under way concerning the next agreement period 2026 to 2035. The aim is to seamlessly continue the present activities that have proven highly successful. The more ambitious energy efficiency targets of the EU impose even higher demands for Finland as well,” said Simo Nurmi, Director General of the Energy Authority.