Wind Ener­gy

Oulu is locat­ed on Fin­land’s wind-rich west­ern coast, offer­ing excel­lent con­di­tions for wind pow­er gen­er­a­tion. North Ostro­both­nia is Fin­land’s lead­ing wind ener­gy region and accounts for approx­i­mate­ly 40% of the coun­try’s total wind pow­er pro­duc­tion. Strong and con­sis­tent coastal winds enable high gen­er­a­tion effi­cien­cy, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the win­ter sea­son. Approx­i­mate­ly 60% of annu­al wind pow­er pro­duc­tion is gen­er­at­ed between Octo­ber and March, coin­cid­ing with the peri­od of high­est elec­tric­i­ty demand.

A key advan­tage of the Oulu region is its well-devel­oped elec­tric­i­ty trans­mis­sion infra­struc­ture. The area is con­nect­ed to Fin­land’s nation­al trans­mis­sion grid through sev­er­al major trans­mis­sion cor­ri­dors oper­at­ed by Fin­grid, enabling the inte­gra­tion of large-scale renew­able ener­gy projects and ener­gy-inten­sive indus­tri­al invest­ments. Local elec­tric­i­ty dis­tri­b­u­tion is man­aged by Oulu Ener­gia.

The region’s long-term growth poten­tial is fur­ther strength­ened by major off­shore wind devel­op­ments planned along the coast of North­ern Fin­land. Sev­er­al off­shore projects are being devel­oped in the sea areas of Raa­he, Siika­jo­ki, Hailu­o­to and Oulu. Togeth­er, these projects are expect­ed to pro­vide approx­i­mate­ly 12 TWh of annu­al elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion, rep­re­sent­ing a sig­nif­i­cant increase in the sup­ply of renew­able ener­gy avail­able to indus­try and future invest­ments. Planned grid con­nec­tion points are locat­ed at the sub­sta­tions of Raa­he, Siika­jo­ki and Pikkar­ala.

Fin­land’s wind ener­gy sec­tor oper­ates on a mar­ket-based basis with­out pro­duc­tion sub­si­dies. In addi­tion, the coun­try has a sub­stan­tial pipeline of per­mit­ted wind pow­er capac­i­ty ready for imple­men­ta­tion as elec­tric­i­ty demand increas­es through indus­tri­al projects, data cen­tres, elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and hydro­gen econ­o­my invest­ments.

Key Facts

• Excel­lent coastal wind con­di­tions
• Approx­i­mate­ly 40% of Fin­land’s wind pow­er is gen­er­at­ed in North Ostro­both­nia
• Peak pro­duc­tion occurs dur­ing the win­ter sea­son (Octo­ber-March)
• Strong con­nec­tiv­i­ty to Fin­land’s nation­al trans­mis­sion grid oper­at­ed by Fin­grid
• Off­shore wind pipeline with an esti­mat­ed annu­al gen­er­a­tion poten­tial of approx­i­mate­ly 12 TWh
• Mar­ket-dri­ven wind pow­er devel­op­ment with­out pro­duc­tion sub­si­dies
• Sig­nif­i­cant amount of per­mit­ted wind pow­er capac­i­ty await­ing new elec­tric­i­ty-con­sum­ing invest­ments

Wind pow­er has become one of the key dri­vers of Fin­land’s ener­gy tran­si­tion, indus­tri­al com­pet­i­tive­ness and invest­ment attrac­tive­ness. The avail­abil­i­ty of afford­able, emis­sion-free elec­tric­i­ty is increas­ing­ly a decid­ing fac­tor for com­pa­nies plan­ning new pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties, data cen­tres, hydro­gen projects and oth­er ener­gy-inten­sive oper­a­tions.

Fin­land offers excel­lent con­di­tions for wind pow­er devel­op­ment. Most new wind farms are built on mar­ket terms with­out pro­duc­tion sub­si­dies, demon­strat­ing the sec­tor’s com­pet­i­tive­ness and long-term via­bil­i­ty. As wind gen­er­a­tion con­tin­ues to expand, it strength­ens nation­al ener­gy self-suf­fi­cien­cy while increas­ing the sup­ply of renew­able elec­tric­i­ty avail­able for indus­tri­al growth.

For busi­ness­es, wind pow­er cre­ates val­ue far beyond elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion. A grow­ing renew­able ener­gy sec­tor sup­ports invest­ment across the entire val­ue chain, includ­ing project devel­op­ment, engi­neer­ing, con­struc­tion, main­te­nance, dig­i­tal ser­vices, ener­gy stor­age and grid infra­struc­ture. Hybrid ener­gy projects com­bin­ing wind pow­er, solar gen­er­a­tion and bat­tery stor­age are fur­ther enhanc­ing the flex­i­bil­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty of ener­gy sys­tems.

The avail­abil­i­ty of renew­able elec­tric­i­ty is also essen­tial for achiev­ing cli­mate tar­gets. Elec­tri­fi­ca­tion is wide­ly recog­nised as the most cost-effec­tive path­way for reduc­ing indus­tri­al emis­sions, and wind pow­er plays a cen­tral role in enabling low-car­bon man­u­fac­tur­ing and ser­vices. Com­pa­nies locat­ing in regions with strong renew­able ener­gy resources can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce their oper­a­tional car­bon foot­print while sup­port­ing their sus­tain­abil­i­ty com­mit­ments.

Wind pow­er projects gen­er­ate sub­stan­tial region­al eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits through invest­ments, sup­ply-chain demand, employ­ment and tax rev­enues. Long oper­a­tional life­times ensure that these ben­e­fits con­tin­ue for decades after con­struc­tion.

Oulu aims to become car­bon neu­tral by 2030 and is active­ly sup­port­ing the tran­si­tion towards a clean ener­gy econ­o­my. Togeth­er with strong grid con­nec­tions, grow­ing renew­able pow­er gen­er­a­tion and a robust indus­tri­al base, the region offers an attrac­tive envi­ron­ment for com­pa­nies seek­ing sus­tain­able growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in North­ern Europe.

Key Ben­e­fits for Investors

• Access to com­pet­i­tive­ly priced renew­able elec­tric­i­ty
• Strong sup­port for indus­tri­al elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and hydro­gen econ­o­my projects
• Mar­ket-dri­ven devel­op­ment with­out pro­duc­tion sub­si­dies
• Long-term invest­ment sta­bil­i­ty and pre­dictable ener­gy sup­ply
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties across the wind ener­gy val­ue chain
• Poten­tial for hybrid ener­gy projects com­bin­ing wind, solar and stor­age
• Con­tri­bu­tion to cor­po­rate decar­bon­i­sa­tion and ESG tar­gets
• Strong region­al com­mit­ment to car­bon neu­tral­i­ty and clean growth
  
  

“North­ern Ostro­both­nia is Fin­land’s lead­ing wind pow­er region, com­bin­ing exten­sive project devel­op­ment activ­i­ty, strong grid infra­struc­ture and sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for future indus­tri­al growth.”

The Oulu region is one of Fin­land’s most active areas for wind pow­er devel­op­ment. A large num­ber of projects are cur­rent­ly in oper­a­tion, under devel­op­ment, or advanc­ing through per­mit­ting and plan­ning process­es, demon­strat­ing strong long-term con­fi­dence in the region’s renew­able ener­gy poten­tial.

The munic­i­pal­i­ty cur­rent­ly has:

• 9 active wind pow­er projects
• 8 projects under devel­op­ment
• 1 project with an approved zon­ing plan
• Poten­tial for up to 139 wind tur­bines

A con­tin­u­ous­ly updat­ed map of wind pow­er projects and oper­at­ing wind farms in Fin­land is avail­able from: Finnish Renew­ables (Suomen uusi­u­tu­vat)

The wider North­ern Ostro­both­nia region hosts dozens of onshore and off­shore wind projects at var­i­ous stages of devel­op­ment. Togeth­er, these projects rep­re­sent a sub­stan­tial pipeline of future renew­able elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion that can sup­port indus­tri­al growth, elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, hydro­gen projects and oth­er ener­gy-inten­sive invest­ments.

Key Devel­op­ment Areas

• Oulu
• Mus­ta­suo
• Navet­takan­gas
• Liipas
• Kotaselkä
• Koutu­an­järvi
• Lat­vaselkä
• Iso-Rytisuo
• Sarviselkä
• Iso Pih­la­ja­suo
• Ii
• Talvi­suo
• Yli-Olha­va
• Uta­järvi
• Ahmas
• Hietaselkä
• Maaselkä
• Tornikan­gas
• Pon­tema
• Pahkavaara
• Pudasjärvi
• Jouten­suo
• Tol­pan­vaara Exten­sion
• Kääpä­suo
• Kaar­to­suo
• Puka-aho / Puka­suo
• Kint­taisvi­ita
• Kuikka­suo
• Vaala
• Susisuo
• Haara­suonkan­gas
• Turkkiselkä
• Limin­ka
• Jau­ran­ne­va

Off­shore Projects

• Seljän­su­un­mata­la East, Siika­jo­ki
• Seljän­su­un­mata­la West, Siika­jo­ki
• Hal­la Off­shore Wind Project
• Exist­ing Wind Farms

The region already hosts numer­ous oper­a­tional wind farms, pro­vid­ing a proven track record for large-scale wind pow­er devel­op­ment and grid inte­gra­tion. Exam­ples include:

• Vihreäsaari (Oulu)
• Riu­tunkari (Oulu)
• Huikku (Hailu­o­to)
• Lumi­tu­uli (Ii)
• Pahkakos­ki (Ii)
• Olha­va (Ii)
• Nyby (Ii)
• Myl­lykan­gas (Ii)
• Vatun­ki (Ii)
• Sähkäle (Lumi­jo­ki)
• Varessäikkä (Siika­jo­ki)
• Varti­no­ja (Siika­jo­ki)
• Isone­va (Siika­jo­ki)

Devel­op­ing a wind pow­er project is a long-term process that requires thor­ough plan­ning, envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment and col­lab­o­ra­tion with local stake­hold­ers. In Fin­land, wind pow­er projects fol­low a struc­tured and pre­dictable devel­op­ment process that helps ensure envi­ron­men­tal, social and tech­ni­cal con­sid­er­a­tions are addressed from the ear­li­est plan­ning stages.

The devel­op­ment and per­mit­ting phase typ­i­cal­ly takes 3–6 years and includes site selec­tion, envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment (EIA), land-use plan­ning, grid con­nec­tion stud­ies and per­mit appli­ca­tions. Dur­ing this phase, devel­op­ers eval­u­ate wind resources, tech­ni­cal fea­si­bil­i­ty and poten­tial envi­ron­men­tal impacts.

Con­struc­tion usu­al­ly takes 1–2 years and includes civ­il works, foun­da­tions, roads, elec­tri­cal infra­struc­ture and tur­bine instal­la­tion. Once com­plet­ed, wind farms enter com­mer­cial oper­a­tion.

Wind tur­bines gen­er­al­ly have an oper­a­tional life­time of 25–30 years, dur­ing which reg­u­lar main­te­nance and per­for­mance opti­mi­sa­tion ensure reli­able elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion. At the end of their ser­vice life, tur­bines can be repow­ered with new­er tech­nol­o­gy or decom­mis­sioned and dis­man­tled.

Over­all, a typ­i­cal wind pow­er project has a life­cy­cle of approx­i­mate­ly 30–35 years.

Envi­ron­men­tal Assess­ment and Respon­si­ble Devel­op­ment

Envi­ron­men­tal con­sid­er­a­tions play a cen­tral role through­out project devel­op­ment. Envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ments typ­i­cal­ly include stud­ies on bird migra­tion, wildlife, habi­tats, land­scape impacts and cul­tur­al her­itage sites.

Care­ful project design and site selec­tion help min­imise impacts on bio­di­ver­si­ty and oth­er land uses. In recent years, increas­ing atten­tion has been paid to ecosys­tem pro­tec­tion, habi­tat con­nec­tiv­i­ty and mea­sures that sup­port bio­di­ver­si­ty along­side renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment.

For projects devel­oped on state-owned land, devel­op­ers are also expect­ed to present plans for pro­mot­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty and sup­port­ing sus­tain­able land use through­out the project life­cy­cle.

Typ­i­cal Wind Pow­er Project Time­line

• Site Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and Fea­si­bil­i­ty Assess­ment
• Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment (EIA)
• Land-Use Plan­ning and Per­mit­ting
• Grid Con­nec­tion Plan­ning
• Financ­ing and Final Invest­ment Deci­sion
• Con­struc­tion (1–2 years)
• Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance (25–30 years)
• Repow­er­ing or Decom­mis­sion­ing
• Why This Mat­ters for Investors
• Trans­par­ent and well-estab­lished per­mit­ting process­es
• Pre­dictable project devel­op­ment time­lines
• Strong envi­ron­men­tal and reg­u­la­to­ry stan­dards
• Long oper­a­tional life­times sup­port­ing sta­ble returns
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties across devel­op­ment, con­struc­tion, oper­a­tions and main­te­nance
• Poten­tial for tech­nol­o­gy upgrades and repow­er­ing at the end of the asset life­cy­cle

The Gulf of Both­nia is expect­ed to become one of Fin­land’s most impor­tant off­shore wind devel­op­ment areas in the com­ing decades. Strong wind con­di­tions, exten­sive sea areas and grow­ing demand for renew­able elec­tric­i­ty are cre­at­ing sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for large-scale off­shore wind invest­ments.

For ener­gy-inten­sive indus­tries, off­shore wind offers the poten­tial for sub­stan­tial increas­es in renew­able elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion, strength­en­ing both region­al ener­gy secu­ri­ty and Fin­land’s long-term com­pet­i­tive­ness as a loca­tion for indus­tri­al invest­ment.

Sev­er­al off­shore wind projects are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped along the west­ern coast of Fin­land. Among the most sig­nif­i­cant is the Hal­la Off­shore Wind Project, locat­ed in Fin­land’s exclu­sive eco­nom­ic zone off the coast of Oulu and Raa­he.

The project is planned to include up to 160 wind tur­bines with an esti­mat­ed annu­al elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 12 TWh. This cor­re­sponds to more than 15% of Fin­land’s total elec­tric­i­ty pro­duc­tion in 2023 and would rep­re­sent one of the largest renew­able ener­gy projects in the Nordic region.

The expan­sion of off­shore wind is expect­ed to cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties through­out the val­ue chain, includ­ing project devel­op­ment, marine con­struc­tion, port oper­a­tions, grid infra­struc­ture, main­te­nance ser­vices and emerg­ing hydro­gen econ­o­my projects.

At the same time, off­shore devel­op­ment requires care­ful coor­di­na­tion with oth­er sea-based activ­i­ties, includ­ing com­mer­cial ship­ping, fish­ing oper­a­tions and sub­ma­rine cable infra­struc­ture. Fin­land’s plan­ning and per­mit­ting process­es are designed to bal­ance these dif­fer­ent inter­ests while enabling respon­si­ble renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment.

Oulu’s Strate­gic Approach

The City of Oulu has estab­lished strate­gic guide­lines for large-scale wind pow­er devel­op­ment to sup­port sus­tain­able growth and long-term invest­ment plan­ning. These guide­lines pro­vide a frame­work for devel­op­ing wind pow­er projects while con­sid­er­ing envi­ron­men­tal, soci­etal and busi­ness-relat­ed objec­tives.
Com­bined with onshore wind devel­op­ments, off­shore wind projects in the Gulf of Both­nia are posi­tion­ing the Oulu region as one of North­ern Europe’s most attrac­tive loca­tions for renew­able-ener­gy-pow­ered indus­tri­al invest­ments.

Com­bined with onshore wind devel­op­ments, off­shore wind projects in the Gulf of Both­nia are posi­tion­ing the Oulu region as one of North­ern Europe’s most attrac­tive loca­tions for renew­able-ener­gy-pow­ered indus­tri­al invest­ments.

Envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty and stake­hold­er engage­ment are inte­gral parts of wind pow­er devel­op­ment in Fin­land. Wind ener­gy projects under­go com­pre­hen­sive envi­ron­men­tal assess­ments and per­mit­ting process­es to ensure that poten­tial impacts are iden­ti­fied and mit­i­gat­ed through­out the project life­cy­cle.

Wind tur­bines must com­ply with Fin­land’s nation­al noise reg­u­la­tions. The Gov­ern­ment Decree on wind tur­bine noise estab­lish­es guide­line val­ues designed to ensure that wind farms are locat­ed at suf­fi­cient dis­tances from res­i­den­tial areas and do not adverse­ly affect liv­ing con­di­tions or envi­ron­men­tal ameni­ty. Care­ful plan­ning, mod­ern tur­bine tech­nol­o­gy and site selec­tion help min­imise noise-relat­ed impacts.

The most sig­nif­i­cant local envi­ron­men­tal impacts are typ­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with con­struc­tion activ­i­ties. These may include land use changes, habi­tat frag­men­ta­tion, tem­po­rary con­struc­tion noise and the devel­op­ment of roads, foun­da­tions, crane areas and under­ground cable con­nec­tions. As a result, envi­ron­men­tal impacts are assessed exten­sive­ly dur­ing project plan­ning and per­mit­ting.

Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion is paid to bio­di­ver­si­ty and wildlife. Envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ments com­mon­ly include stud­ies of bird migra­tion routes, breed­ing areas, habi­tats and oth­er eco­log­i­cal val­ues. Poten­tial impacts can often be reduced through appro­pri­ate site selec­tion, project design and oper­a­tional mea­sures such as tem­po­rary tur­bine shut­downs dur­ing sen­si­tive migra­tion peri­ods when nec­es­sary.

Off­shore Wind Con­sid­er­a­tions

Off­shore wind projects involve many of the same envi­ron­men­tal assess­ment prin­ci­ples as oth­er marine infra­struc­ture devel­op­ments. Poten­tial impacts include tem­po­rary seabed dis­tur­bance dur­ing con­struc­tion, under­wa­ter noise and changes to local marine con­di­tions.

At the same time, off­shore wind foun­da­tions may cre­ate new habi­tats for marine species. In some loca­tions, tur­bine foun­da­tions can func­tion as arti­fi­cial reefs that sup­port bio­di­ver­si­ty by pro­vid­ing sur­faces for shell­fish and oth­er marine organ­isms.

Long-Term Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty Engage­ment

Envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ments (EIA) and per­mit­ting pro­ce­dures eval­u­ate not only indi­vid­ual projects but also the cumu­la­tive effects of mul­ti­ple devel­op­ments with­in the same region. This approach helps ensure that renew­able ener­gy expan­sion is bal­anced with envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion and oth­er land and sea uses.

Suc­cess­ful wind pow­er devel­op­ment also depends on trans­par­ent stake­hold­er engage­ment and com­mu­ni­ty dia­logue. Ear­ly coop­er­a­tion between devel­op­ers, munic­i­pal­i­ties, landown­ers, res­i­dents and oth­er stake­hold­ers helps strength­en social accep­tance and sup­ports long-term project suc­cess.

Oulu offers not only excel­lent wind resources but also a com­plete busi­ness ecosys­tem sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment, con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of wind pow­er projects.

The Oulu region hosts a grow­ing wind ener­gy ecosys­tem that sup­ports all phas­es of wind pow­er devel­op­ment, from project plan­ning and engi­neer­ing to con­struc­tion, logis­tics, oper­a­tions and main­te­nance.

The region is home to a wide range of com­pa­nies active in renew­able ener­gy project devel­op­ment, engi­neer­ing ser­vices, con­struc­tion, infra­struc­ture, grid solu­tions and tech­ni­cal con­sult­ing. Inter­na­tion­al and Finnish wind pow­er devel­op­ers oper­ate along­side a strong net­work of local con­trac­tors and ser­vice providers, cre­at­ing an estab­lished envi­ron­ment for renew­able ener­gy invest­ments.

A Com­plete Wind Pow­er Val­ue Chain

The region­al ecosys­tem includes exper­tise in:

• Project devel­op­ment and per­mit­ting
• Envi­ron­men­tal stud­ies and impact assess­ments
• Engi­neer­ing and tech­ni­cal design
• Civ­il con­struc­tion and infra­struc­ture
• Elec­tri­cal grid con­nec­tions
• Heavy trans­port and logis­tics
• Port oper­a­tions
• Wind tur­bine instal­la­tion
• Oper­a­tions and main­te­nance ser­vices
• Inspec­tion, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and com­pli­ance ser­vices

Logis­tics and Infra­struc­ture

Effi­cient logis­tics are essen­tial for wind pow­er devel­op­ment. The trans­porta­tion of tur­bine com­po­nents requires spe­cialised route plan­ning, trans­port per­mits and heavy-lift exper­tise.

The Port of Oulu’s Oritkari har­bour plays an impor­tant role in han­dling large indus­tri­al car­go and wind tur­bine com­po­nents. The region also ben­e­fits from spe­cialised logis­tics providers expe­ri­enced in trans­port­ing over­sized wind ener­gy equip­ment through­out North­ern Fin­land.

Wind pow­er logis­tics typ­i­cal­ly involve:

• Route sur­veys and trans­port plan­ning
• Per­mit appli­ca­tions for spe­cial trans­ports
• Port han­dling and car­go oper­a­tions
• Road trans­port of tur­bine com­po­nents
• Heavy lift­ing and instal­la­tion works
• Site com­mis­sion­ing and test­ing
• Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance

Wind farms require long-term oper­a­tions and main­te­nance ser­vices through­out their 25–30 year oper­at­ing life.

Main­te­nance may be per­formed by the tur­bine man­u­fac­tur­er, inde­pen­dent ser­vice providers or the asset own­er’s own organ­i­sa­tion. Ser­vice agree­ments are com­mon­ly estab­lished when tur­bines are pur­chased and typ­i­cal­ly cov­er the first 5–12 years of oper­a­tion. After the war­ran­ty peri­od, oper­a­tors may con­tin­ue with man­u­fac­tur­er sup­port or tran­si­tion to inde­pen­dent main­te­nance providers.

This cre­ates long-term busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties in tech­ni­cal ser­vices, inspec­tions, dig­i­tal mon­i­tor­ing, pre­dic­tive main­te­nance and spe­cialised field oper­a­tions.

Oulu com­bines strong renew­able ener­gy resources with inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised research and devel­op­ment capa­bil­i­ties. The region’s uni­ver­si­ties, research insti­tutes and indus­try part­ners are active­ly involved in devel­op­ing tech­nolo­gies that sup­port the future growth of wind pow­er and the wider ener­gy tran­si­tion.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu con­ducts research across sev­er­al fields rel­e­vant to wind ener­gy, includ­ing ener­gy sys­tems, dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, weath­er fore­cast­ing and envi­ron­men­tal impacts. For exam­ple, the CoPow­er project has con­tributed to the devel­op­ment of advanced ener­gy weath­er fore­cast­ing solu­tions that help improve renew­able ener­gy pro­duc­tion plan­ning and grid oper­a­tions.

Research and inno­va­tion activ­i­ties in the region also focus on:

• Smart elec­tric­i­ty sys­tems and grid inte­gra­tion
• Ener­gy fore­cast­ing and dig­i­tal opti­mi­sa­tion
• Wind pow­er and hydro­gen pro­duc­tion
• Tur­bine tech­nol­o­gy and effi­cien­cy improve­ments
• Bio­di­ver­si­ty and envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment
• Cir­cu­lar econ­o­my solu­tions for wind tur­bine com­po­nents
• Off­shore wind devel­op­ment in north­ern con­di­tions

VTT Tech­ni­cal Research Cen­tre of Fin­land con­tributes exper­tise in renew­able ener­gy, Arc­tic con­di­tions, icing phe­nom­e­na, radar impact assess­ments and tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment for future ener­gy sys­tems.

Emerg­ing Inno­va­tion Areas

The rapid growth of renew­able ener­gy is cre­at­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for research, pilot projects and com­mer­cial inno­va­tion.

Par­tic­u­lar areas of inter­est include:

• Inte­gra­tion of wind pow­er and green hydro­gen pro­duc­tion
• Ener­gy stor­age and hybrid ener­gy sys­tems
• Par­tic­i­pa­tion of wind pow­er in elec­tric­i­ty reserve mar­kets
• Dig­i­tal mon­i­tor­ing and pre­dic­tive main­te­nance
• Recy­cling and cir­cu­lar econ­o­my solu­tions for tur­bine mate­ri­als
• Off­shore wind tech­nolo­gies for Nordic con­di­tions

As the first large-scale wind tur­bines begin reach­ing the end of their oper­a­tional life­times in the com­ing decades, increas­ing atten­tion is being giv­en to tur­bine repow­er­ing, com­po­nent reuse and recy­cling tech­nolo­gies.

Research Sup­port­ing Future Ener­gy Sys­tems

Research organ­i­sa­tions across Fin­land are study­ing how the con­tin­ued expan­sion of wind pow­er can con­tribute to more effi­cient elec­tric­i­ty mar­kets and a more resilient ener­gy sys­tem. Increased geo­graph­i­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion of wind pow­er gen­er­a­tion can help bal­ance pro­duc­tion pat­terns and strength­en long-term ener­gy secu­ri­ty.

Fin­land’s low pop­u­la­tion den­si­ty and exten­sive land and sea areas also pro­vide favourable con­di­tions for devel­op­ing both onshore and off­shore wind ener­gy while bal­anc­ing envi­ron­men­tal and soci­etal con­sid­er­a­tions.

Col­lab­o­ra­tion and Indus­try Engage­ment

The region sup­ports active col­lab­o­ra­tion between research organ­i­sa­tions, ener­gy com­pa­nies, tech­nol­o­gy providers and pub­lic sec­tor stake­hold­ers. This enables the test­ing and deploy­ment of new solu­tions in real-world oper­at­ing envi­ron­ments.

For com­pa­nies invest­ing in renew­able ener­gy, Oulu offers oppor­tu­ni­ties to col­lab­o­rate with lead­ing research insti­tu­tions, access high­ly skilled tal­ent and par­tic­i­pate in inno­va­tion projects that sup­port com­mer­cial growth and tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment.

Events and Knowl­edge Shar­ing

Oulu hosts events and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties focused on renew­able ener­gy, clean tech­nolo­gies and indus­tri­al trans­for­ma­tion. These activ­i­ties help con­nect com­pa­nies, researchers, investors and pub­lic-sec­tor stake­hold­ers.

Exam­ples include:

• Wind Oulu 2027
• Renew­able ener­gy sem­i­nars and work­shops organ­ised by Busi­nes­sOulu and region­al part­ners
• Indus­try-spe­cif­ic con­fer­ences, inno­va­tion projects and stake­hold­er forums

JANNE Hietanie­mi

Key Account Direc­tor, Cleantech and Indus­try
janne.hietaniemi@businessoulu.com
+358 40 649 1211

Päivi Lehto

Coor­di­na­tor, Cleantech and Sus­tain­able Indus­try
paivi.lehto@businessoulu.com
+358 40 759 5093