Govt to float tender for renewable energy in autumn

Renewable electricity generation will be opened up to competition in autumn 2018, said an official press release.

The Finnish Energy Authority will launch a call for tenders in November/December that will determine which renewable electricity investments will be approved for the new premium scheme.

Tenders will be invited for an annual renewable energy production of 1.4 TWh. Tenders may be submitted by electricity producers whose wind, solar, biomass, biogas or wave power investment projects are far along in the development process.

The Government issued a decree on Wednesday on the entry into force of the Act on Production Subsidy for Electricity Produced from Renewable Energy Sources.

The Act will enter into force on June 25.

“We will have probably the world’s most technology-neutral call for tenders, which will grant production subsidies only to the most cost-effective and competitive investments. The idea is to see how the different forms of renewable energy production actually manage in real life when they are on an equal footing with other production forms,” said Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing Kimmo Tiilikainen.

“The scheme will be a transition period solution. We need it to ensure that we reach Finland’s and the EU’s energy and climate goals by 2030. From the taxpayers’ viewpoint, it is a significantly more affordable way to support renewable electricity generation than the current feed-in-tariff system, which it will replace,” said the minister.

A condition for the competitive tendering is that Parliament approves the budget authority for government subsidy for an annual production up to 1.4 TWh proposed in the first supplementary budget for 2018, currently being discussed in Parliament. The subsidy would be paid for 12 years. It is estimated that the first instalment of the subsidy would be paid in 2020.

The new act will amend the Act on Production Subsidy for Electricity Produced from Renewable Energy Sources. It will lay down provisions on a tendering-based premium scheme, which will promote, in a technology-neural way, power plant investments that use renewable energy sources. The feed-in tariff system will be closed down for new biogas and wood fuel power plants.