Finland: €80 million for renewables and new energy technology

The Government of Finland has approved the investment aid scheme for renewable energy and new energy technologies as part of the country’s ongoing efforts to achieve national and EU climate goals.

The Government plans to allocate a total of €80 million for the investment aid in 2017 and 2018, for investments of more than €5 million related to pilot projects for new energy technology and production of advanced transport biofuels.

The aid applications must be submitted to the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy by March 18, 2016, but the applications can still be supplemented after this date.

The second application round will take place in early 2017, according to the Finnish government.

The projects applying for investment aid will be competing with each other, and the aid will be granted on the basis of overall consideration, in which account is taken of the amount of energy produced and cost-efficiency, as well as, inter alia, project viability, the novelty value of the project technology and the replicability of the project or the technology.

The Government of Finland plans to increase the use of renewable energy in a sustainable way to more than 50% during the 2020s, and self-sufficiency to more than 55%.

The Government programme also envisages that the share of renewable transport fuels will be raised to 40% by 2030 and that Finland will stop using coal in energy production and halve the use of imported oil for domestic needs during the 2020s.