The Republic of Finland is slightly smaller in area than Montana, and has a population of 5.2 million. Finland is bordered by Norway to the north, Russia to the east, Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, and the Gulf of Finland to the south. There are six provincial administrative divisions (called 'läänit'), which are subdivided into a total of 20 regional councils (called 'maakuntalitto'); these are shown in Figure 1. The capital city, Helsinki, is a seaport located on the Gulf of Finland in the south of the country and has a population of about 575,000. Finland is a member of the European Union and uses the Euro as its currency; the Euro has an exchange rate of about 0.88 Euros per U.S. dollar (as of August 2003). Finland's GDP (based on purchasing power parity) is $136.2 billion, which ranks it 48th among 212 countries and territories.

Figure 1: Administrative Divisions of Finland

Sources: map (at right) courtesy of and copyright by Stefan Helders http://www.world-gazetteer.com/
map (at left): Finland Ministry of Interior

The electric industry in Finland is regulated by the Electricity Market Authority (EMA). EMA monitors the reasonableness of prices and the equal treatment of customers and competitors. The Office of Free Competition monitors the wholesale market for energy.

In June 1995, Finland's Electricity Market Act removed the licensing requirements for constructing power plants and selling electricity directly to ultimate customers. The Act started out applying to large users over 500 megawatts (MWe), but it also has covered smaller users since 1997. The law also made it easier to import and export electricity and has mandated transmission access and unbundled functional activities.

In May 1997, Finland adopted an energy strategy that includes promoting a competitive energy market and diversifying energy supplies. The strategy also emphasized energy efficiency, use of renewables, and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. In 1990, Finland became the first country in the world to institute a carbon tax; the tax on district heating is based on the carbon content of the fuel. Finland also has a tax on electricity usage.

The Finnish government funds the Information Centre for Energy Efficiency, known as Motiva. Motiva has been in operation since 1993, performing energy audits, providing information on energy efficiency, and negotiating voluntary agreements with companies to reduce their energy usage.

Finland is a net energy importer. It has no significant domestic reserves of any fossil fuels except peat, and its electricity generation is not sufficient, without supplemental imports, to meet demand. A diagram of Finland's sources of energy in 2002 is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Finland's Sources of Energy, 2002

Source: Kyro Corporation

An historical summary of Finland's Total Primary Energy Supply (TPEP) and Consumption (TPEC) is shown in Table 1.

Oil
Exploration and Reserves
Finland has no domestic oil reserves, and no exploration for oil in Finland is currently happening. The mostly state-owned company Fortum Oyj has formed joint ventures for oil exploration in other countries, most notably Russia, where a venture with the Russian company SeverTEK will develop the Shapkino field in northwest Russia.

Production and Consumption
All of Finland's oil is imported, with oil imports being handled by Finland's energy company, Fortum Oyj, which was created in 1998 with the merger of the electricity generating company Imatran Voima Oy (IVO) and the oil company Neste Oy. Fortum Oyj is presently about 60% owned by the Finnish government, and conducts a large part of its business operations outside Finland, including production of oil. Most of Finland's oil imports have come from the North Sea and Oman, but Russia is expected to be a significant source of oil in the future. An historical summary of petroleum production and consumption in Finland is shown in Table 2.

Refineries and Downstream Processing
There are two oil refineries in Finland, both owned by Fortum Oyj, at Porvoo and Naantali, which in 2002 had a total refining capacity of about 14 million metric tons, equivalent to about 200,000 barrels per day (b/d). Both are located along Finland's southern coastline where crude oil can be received by ship. A brief summary of these refineries is shown in Table 3.

The refinery output is a range of products used for transportation, heating, industry, agriculture, and energy generation. Much of this production is exported (by ship); in 2002, Fortum Oyj supplied about 8 million metric tons of petroleum products for domestic markets and exported about 5.2 million metric tons. An historical summary of Finland's refined products output is shown in Table 4.

Fortum Oyj's vertical integration also extends to network of about 1,000 automotive service stations under the Neste name, and has about 40% of the retail oil products market in Finland. Neste also markets oil products and operates service stations in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Natural Gas
Exploration and Reserves
Finland has no domestic natural gas reserves and no domestic gas exploration program.

Production and Consumption
All of Finland's gas is imported from Russia. The gas import company is Gasum Oy, which also is responsible for natural gas transmission within Finland. Gasum Oy was founded in 1994; its was once owned by the Finnish government, but has since been mostly privatized. The largest shareholders are Fortum Oyj (25% ownership), Russia's Gazprom (25%), the Finnish government (25%), and Germany's Ruhrgas (20%). Gasum Oy has a 20-year gas supply contract with Gazprom, which took effect in 1994 at the time of Gasum Oy's founding.

Natural gas presently accounts for about 11% of Finland's total energy needs. About three-quarters of the gas is used for combined heat and power (CHP) generation in industrial and municipal power plants. There are 42 local gas distribution companies in Finland, but residential use of natural gas in Finland is much lower than for central Europe.

An historical summary of natural gas production and consumption in Finland is shown in Table 5.

Coal
There is no coal production in Finland and there are no significant deposits. Finland's coal is imported from Poland, Russia, and the United States, and is used for electricity generation and steelmaking. An historical summary of coal production and consumption in Finland is shown in Table 6.

Nuclear Power
Power Plants
Nuclear power has been part of Finland's energy mix since the late 1970s, and it now accounts for slightly more than one-quarter of its total electricity supply. Finland has two nuclear power plants, the 1,020 MWe Loviisa facility originally built by IVO and now owned by Fortum Oyj and the 1,680 MWe Olkiluoto facility owned by Teollisuuden Voyma Oy (TVO). TVO itself is 57% privately owned; the remaining 43% is owned by the Finnish government or its state-controlled entities, including 27% that is owned by Fortum Oyj. The 57% private share is owned by energy-consuming industrial firms who take their shares of electricity at cost and sell any excess into the Nordic market after fulfilling their own needs. Most of these private owners are in heavy industry.

A summary of Finland's two nuclear power plants is shown in Table 7.

All four of these units have been upgraded since they were originally constructed -- the Swedish boiling water reactors at Olkiluoto were originally rated at 690 MWe each but now generate 840 MWe each, while the Soviet-designed VVERs at Loviisa were upgraded from about 465 MWe each to the current capacity of 510 MWe each. (The Loviisa upgrades included installation of more modern control systems to satisfy European Union safety requirements.) A map showing the location of the two nuclear power plants is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Locations of Finland's Nuclear Power Plants

Source: Österreichisches Ökologie-Institut

In June 2002, Finland's parliament approved the decision to construct a fifth nuclear reactor, the first time a new nuclear power plant in western Europe had been approved in more than a decade. Nuclear power was seen as the most cost-effective alternative for allowing Finland to expand its electricity generation capabilities while helping it meet its Kyoto Protocol commitment for greenhouse gas emissions and such a large new baseload unit should also lead to more stable electricity prices. The unit, which is expected to be from at least 1,000 MWe to as much as 1,600 MWe, will most likely be built at one of the two existing nuclear power plant sites. TVO has been given the ownership rights and in February 2003 solicited bids for the unit, with either a boiling water reactor or a pressurized water reactor being allowed. The estimated cost of the new reactor is in the range $1.9-2.8 billion; the permit process is scheduled to be completed by 2005, and with a four-year construction period, the new unit would be expected to begin operation by 2010.

In response to TVO's tender, four competing designs have been proposed by three offerers. General Electric proposed a 1,390 MWe European Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), while Atomstroyexport proposed a 1,060 MWe VVER-91/99. Framatome ANP proposed two designs -- a 1,500 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) and a 1,200 MWe SWR-1000 (a Boiling Water Reactor).

Nuclear Waste Management
A nuclear waste management fund was created in 1987 under that year's Nuclear Energy Act. A surface pool storage at Olkiluoto also went into operation that year. At Loviisa, the Russian nuclear fuel supplier had taken away the waste until 1996, but when that arrangement ended interim storage pools were set up at the power plant.

In the May 2001, Finland's Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution to let Posiva Oy, a nuclear waste management company owned 40% by Fortum Oyj and 60% by TVO, make preliminary arrangements to build a deep geological nuclear waste repository, which will be sited near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. Spent fuel rods will be permanently contained at a depth of 500 meters in two billion year old igneous rock. It is expected that the construction license for the repository will be requested in 2010, with operation proposed for 2020. Both nuclear power plants already have underground repositories for low- and intermediate-level operational wastes.

Peat
Peat bogs cover about one-third of Finland's total area, but Finland derives only a relatively small proportion of its energy from peat. Peat presently constitutes about 6-7% of Finland's total primary energy supply, including about 18-20% of the energy input for the smaller combined heat and power (CHP) facilities at municipal and industrial sites. Finland has 40 power plants that utilize peat, or a mixture of peat and wood waste. Peat is also a commonly-used fuel for home heating in the interior of the country; nearly 10% of Finland's population reside in homes heated with peat fuel. Peat is sometimes categorized as a form of renewable energy, but that description is only marginally accurate as peat bogs renew themselves at a very low rate (about one millimeter per year), and only the bottom section of a peatland layer is suitable as fuel.

According to Geological Survey of Finland, the total energy content of Finland's usable peat reserves is larger than that for the proven oil reserves of the North Sea. Finland is presently the world's leading peat producing country. The leading peat producer in Finland, and for that matter the entire world, is Vapo Oy Energia, located in the city of Jyväskylä, which has about 80% of the domestic market for fuel peat. The other major peat producer in the country is Turveruukki Oy, located in the city of Oulu. An historical summary of Finland's peat production is shown in Table 8.

Hydroelectric and Other Renewable Energy
Hydroelectric Power
Finland is comprised of two main watersheds. By far the largest of these encompasses the rivers that flow into the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, both of which are arms of the Baltic Sea. The far north of the country is drained by rivers that flow north into Norway or northeast into Russia, eventually emptying into the Arctic Ocean. Most of Finland's rivers are relatively short length and shallow. The longest river in Finland is the Kemijoki, which begins in northeast Finland near the border with Russia and flows southwestward to the Gulf of Bothnia. Other major rivers include the Muonio, which begins in far northwest Finland and flows southward to the Gulf of Bothnia (forming part of Finland's border with Sweden) and the Oulujoki, which begins in central Finland and flows westward to the Gulf of Bothnia.

The most significant areas of hydropower development in Finland are on the Kemijoki River in northern Finland and in the Oulujoki River basin in central Finland. In particular, the Oulujoki and its tributary the Emäjoki have become, in effect, a series of lakes from the numerous small and medium-size hydroelectric facilities that have been constructed there. A map of the hydroelectric development in the Oulujoki basin is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Hydroelectric Development in Finland's Oulujoki River Basin

Source: Fortum Oyj

There are presently about 200 hydroelectric power plants in Finland. However, most of these are small -- only eight have generating capacities of at least 100 MWe with none more than 200 MWe. The three major hydroelectric generating companies are Kemijoki Oy, Fortum Oyj, and Pohjolan Voima Oy (PVO), though there are also many other players active in the subsector. A summary of Finland's hydroelectric power plants is shown in Table 9.

About 60% of Finland's rivers have been developed for hydroelectric energy and about 20% are protected against development. As a result, few new hydroelectric projects are being planned. The two largest such facilities -- the 56 MWe Sierila power plant and the 37 MWe Vuotos power plant -- will both be owed by Kemijoki Oy.

Wind Energy
Finland presently has more than 60 relatively small wind power plants, with a total installed capacity of more than 40 MWe. Most of these are less than 2 MWe, and all are located near the seacoast or in northern mountainous areas. A map with the locations of Finland's windpower facilities is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Finland's Windpower Facilities

Source: Finnish Wind Power Association

Windpower currently has about a 0.1% share of Finland's overall TPEP. However, Åland lääni, which has seven different windpower facilities for more than 6 MWe in total generating capacity, gets a significant amount of its electricity supply from windpower. A summary of Finland's largest windpower facilities is shown in Table 10.

Although wind power will probably never be more than a very minor contribution to Finland's total electricity supply, the amount of electricity annually generated from the wind has greatly increased since the early 1990s. An historical summary of Finland's total electricity generation by windpower is shown in Table 11.

Renewable Biomass Energy
Forest-based fuels are an important energy source in Finland. In 2001, about one million cubic meters of forest fuels was consumed in Finland's power plants, the equivalent of nearly two million megawatt-hours of usable energy. Finland has a national goal of increasing that usage to 5 million cubic meters by the year 2010.

Energy Transmission Infrastructure
Natural Gas Pipelines
Gasum Oy is responsible for natural gas transmission in Finland; it owns and operates Finland's gas network of 999 kilometers of high pressure transmission pipelines and about 1,000 kilometers of low pressure distribution pipelines, which mostly links Helsinki and parts of southern Finland. All gas is imported from Russia via the Northern Lights Pipeline, which goes from the Karelian Isthmus to Finland. The gas sent to Finland originates in Urengoy in the Western Siberian gas field. A map of Finland's high pressure gas transmission pipelines is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Finland's Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines

Source: Gasum Oy

Several new gas pipelines are in the planning stages. Perhaps the most important, which would provide an alternative to Russian gas, is the proposed Mid-Nordic Gas Pipeline, which would exploit the as-yet mostly undeveloped gas fields off the middle Norwegian coast. The pipeline would head eastward across Norway, Sweden, and the Gulf of Bothnia to western Finland, where the gas could displace coal presently being burned by Finland's largest power plants.

Electricity Transmission
Finland's national electricity grid is operated by Fingrid Oyj, which is responsible for the grid's technical & operational reliability, ensuring proper power balance across the grid, and settlement of transactions between buyers and sellers of electricity. Fingrid Oyj was created in November 1996 from the electricity transmission assets of IVO, and now owns more than 99% of the grid as well as all major interconnections. Fingrid has three major shareholders: Fortum Oyj (25%), Pohjolan Voima Oy (25%), and the Finnish government (12%); the remaining 38% of the shares are held by various insurance companies. Fingrid is also the owner of a 20% share of Nord Pool Spot AS, an electricity exchange of the Scandinavian countries.

The grid itself consists of more than 14,000 kilometers of transmission lines and more than 100 substations. There are about 3,900 kilometers of 400 kilovolt (kV) lines, about 2,500 kilometers of 220 kV lines, and about 7,500 kilometers of 110 kV lines. A map of Finland's high voltage electricity transmission grid is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Finland's High Voltage Electricity Grid
(as of December 2001)

(Click on Image to View a Much Larger Version)
Source: Fingrid Oyj

Finland is connected via electric transmission lines to Sweden, Russia, and Norway, which all export electricity to Finland. In 2002, a new 400 kV transmission line was constructed between Finland and Russia, which increased the total transmission capacity between Finland and Russia to 1,300 MWe.

An historical summary of electricity generation and consumption in Finland is shown in Table 12.

Installed Capacity
An historical summary of installed electricity generating capacity in Finland is shown in Table 13.

Industry Overview
There are about 120 generating companies in Finland, but by far the largest are Fortum Oyj and PVO. Unlike Fortum Oyj, PVO is fully privately-owned with its largest shareholders being two forest products companies (UPM-Kymmene Oy, which holds 40% of the stock, and Stora Enso Oyj, which has about 14% of the stock) and another energy company (TXU Nordic Energy Oy, with about 14% of the stock). PVO generates about 23% of the electricity produced in Finland and owns about 11% of Finland's total electricity generating capacity, while Fortum Oyj owns almost one-third of Finland's total generating capacity (as well as about 19% of Sweden's total generating capacity).

Many of the other, smaller, power generators are themselves subsidiary companies or joint ventures of some of the other players. For example, Kymin Voima Oy, which owns the Kuusankoski cogeneration facility, is a joint venture of PVO (76%) and a paper manufacturer, Kouvolan Seudun Sähkö Oy (24%), while Nokian Lämpövoima Oy, which owns the combined cycle power plants at Nokia and Kotka, is 80% owned by PVO-Lämpövoima Oy, which is a subsidiary company of PVO. Most of these smaller power producers cogenerate combined heat and power (CHP), and are usually located adjacent to industry sites where the thermal energy is needed. Finland is one of the world's leaders in cogeneration; about 35% of all electricity generated in Finland now comes from CHP units, and this is expected to rise to 40% by 2010.

Finland's largest fossil fuel power plant is Fortum Oyj's 1,000 MWe Inkoo facility near Helsinki. The most interesting power plant, though, is a hybrid facility located at Lahti in southern Finland, where a 49 MWe gas turbine (operated mainly in cold weather) whose waste heat is recovered to preheat boiler water for a 138 MWe pulverized coal power plant; there is also a biomass gasifier there whose fuel gas is combusted in the coal-fueled boiler. Another hybrid facility exists in Fortum's Vanaja power plant at Hämeenlinna, in southern Finland, which features a combined cycle gas turbine with two integrated coal-fueled boilers for additional steam generation.

A summary of Finland's non-nuclear thermal-electric power plants is shown in Table 14.

Environmental Activities

The main environmental issues in Finland are acid rain from power plant emissions, air pollution from manufacturing, and water pollution from industrial wastes and agricultural chemicals. Finland has devoted much attention to preserving forest lands. Finland has signed treaties on Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, the Convention on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Marine Dumping, and Ozone Layer Protection.

Considerable progress has been made over the past decade in reducing the amount of air emissions. In particular, dramatic reductions in annual sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions have been achieved. An historical summary of anthropogenic SO2, NOx, carbon monoxide (CO), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) emissions in Finland are shown in Table 15.

Finland is taking very seriously its Kyoto-protocol carbon dioxide emissions goals, and actually achieved an overall annual reduction of fossil fuel-related carbon dioxide emissions since 1990. An historical summary of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel use in Finland is shown in Table 16.

The Finnish government does not appear to be willing to divest itself of majority stakes in most of its major energy production and transmission assets. Fortum Oyj is still 75% government owned, and since Fortum Oyj owns 75% of Gasum Oy, that, too, is in effect controlled by the Finnish government. The only major enterprise where the Finnish government owns less than a 50% stake is the electricity transmission company Fingrid Oyj, where the overall stake is about 30%, when taking in to account both Fortum Oyj's shares and the shares owned directly by the government.

There are some large privately-owned energy generation companies, such as PVO and Kemijoki Oy, that do business in Finland. However, these were never government-owned in the first place.

Finland has a well-developed, mature economy characterized by low inflation, a moderate annual GDP growth rate, and a per-capita GDP about two-thirds of that for the United States. Finland's economy is largely industry-based, with the paper and timber industries, in particular, big contributors. An historical summary of some of Finland's macroeconomic indicators is shown in Table 17.

Finland's exports in 2001 were estimated to be $40.1 billion. The main exports were machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals, timber, paper, and pulp. Finland exports mostly to Germany, Sweden, Britain, the United States, France, and Italy. Finland's imports in 2001 were $31.2 billion. The main imports were foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, transport equipment, iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn and fabrics, and grains. The imports are predominantly from Germany, Sweden, Russia, US, Britain, and Japan.

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last updated on August 6, 2003

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