Finland To Dump Coal by 2030

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Finland has joined a growing number of European countries pledging to ditch coal-fired power in the coming decades.

Launching its "Energy and Climate Strategy for 2030 and Beyond" strategy report, the Finnish government revealed that it will phase out coal-fired power by 2030. It has further announced plans for its energy production to be carbon-neutral by 2050. The move comes just weeks after France and Canada separately announced plans to remove coal from their power mix in the next seven and 14 years, respectively. For additional information, see November 24, 2016, article--France To Quit Coal-Fired Power by 2023 and November 22, 2016, article--Canada to Phase Out Traditional Coal-Fired Power by 2030.

"We are facing a global and fundamental change of the whole energy economy," stated Economic Affairs Minister Oli Rehn. "The National Energy and Climate Strategy adopted by the Finnish government today is our response to this serious challenge. Utilising the potential of Finnish renewable energy to produce electricity at an industrial level is one of the central questions in achieving long-term energy and climate goals."

Coal-fired power generation accounted for 7% of Finland's total power generation in 2015, with 45% coming from renewable energy and 34% from nuclear power.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen, added: "For the success of our export sector, first-mover advantage is decisive. It is most important that Finland is now taking a big step in the right direction. By 2030 we will stop using coal, reduce the use of imported oil by a half, and raise the number of electric cars to 250,000. The common thread in the Energy and Climate Strategy is the substitution of domestic energy for imported energy, especially oil and coal. This is the best solution from the employment perspective as well."

The government said that "using coal for energy production will be discontinued during the 2020s" while new power plants or replacement investments that are based on burning coal "must not be made." To back up its plan the government said it will introduce strong tax measures or legally ban the use of coal.

There has been mixed reaction to the plan to ditch coal from the energy sector. Jukka Leskelä, the managing director of Finnish Energy, said: "The discussion about prohibiting the use of coal under law is inexplicable. Such an effort would not succeed without offering substantial compensation to energy companies."

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