Category Archives: News from the Club

Espoo – the most sustainable city in Europe

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City of Espoo’s development operations are focused on four programmes, one of which is the Sustainable Espoo. This programme work will support the development and implementation of economically, ecologically, socially and culturally sustainable solutions. The climate programme will be updated to match the climate goal of the Espoo story.

Target benefits of the Sustainable Espoo development programme for the years 2017 – 2021

  1. We will build and develop Espoo using smart solutions
  2. The transport of Espoo residents will become more streamlined and diversified
  3. Emission-free energy production and smart energy solutions
  4. Espoo residents will act responsibly
  5. The nature benefits and recreational opportunities of the local environment will increase

Espoo’s objective is to be permanently the most sustainable city in Europe. Espoo’s aim is to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.

The City of Espoo with its local partners and networks was awarded a prize in the Energy Globe World Award event in Yazdi, Iran on 29 January 2019. It is one of the most prestigious awards in the energy and environment sector. The Sustainable City award gives recognition to the long-term work done in Espoo for the sake of sustainable development, particularly with regard to energy collaboration.

In 2018, Espoo joined the United Nations leadership programme for sustainable development. Espoo is one of 25 cities serving as pioneers of sustainable development. The City of Espoo is committed to reaching the UN’s sustainable development goals already by 2025, along with the university cities of Cambridge in the UK, Palo Alto in the United States, Heidelberg in Germany and Noida in India.By signing the agreement, the City of Espoo undertakes to support the development of new smart city solutions and becoming carbon-neutral. Espoo will focus on learning, education and innovation, and its most important partner in the pioneering work will be Aalto University. The work emphasises partnerships and involvement, in order to engage the whole city: the city organisation, companies, communities and, most importantly, the residents.

Finland experience on low carbon transformation

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Fortum Group Kalle-Erkki Penttilä

Kalle-Erkki Penttilä from Fortum said in his speech: Finland is a top country in the use of high technology. We have done better energy use and consumption. We have also cooperated with many large companies, universities, and many countries. Cooperation with the partners, which is why I think this conference is a very good opportunity to allow Finnish energy companies to participate in cooperation, explore ways to achieve carbon neutrality, and improve the efficiency of energy products, especially in Among many cities in China.

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The conference was divided into two parts. The keynote speech of the special guest was chaired by He Jijiang, Executive Deputy Director of the Energy Transition and Social Development Research Center of Tsinghua University. The second part is a demonstration of Finnish low-carbon technologies and solutions, hosted by John William from Sinak, Finland.

In the keynote speech session, academician Wang Jiyang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Markku Markkula, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Espoo, Finland, Innovation Consul of the Consulate General of Finland in Shanghai, Dr. Mika Klemettinen, Director of the Shanghai Office of the Ministry of Commerce of Finland, Project Executive of the European Office of the Exchange Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology Ms. Guan Xia Huanhuan gave wonderful speeches respectively.

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Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wang Jiyang

Academician Wang Jixu took Hefei Binhu New Area as an example, focusing on the use of geothermal resources in the Yangtze River Delta. Binhu New District is a new area for government affairs, finance, culture, and tourism, and a low-carbon demonstration zone for China and the United States. Many energy stations use lake water, using geothermal heat pumps, reclaimed water heat pumps, ice storage, water storage, and natural gas trigeneration. He believes that the local advantage lies in the maximum two-way heating, which can be used for heating in winter and cooling in summer. “How much heat is taken out of the ground, and how much heat can be put back in the summer. In terms of heat, it is balanced in heating, and there is no so-called cold accumulation or hot accumulation.”

He proposed to vigorously develop geothermal +, “it is to focus on geothermal, combining solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy and even ocean energy and other new energy and renewable energy to maximize.” He shared a Sino-US cooperation project, The top of the project is full of photovoltaic panels, and the bottom is a geothermal heat pump. The entire building uses geothermal and solar photovoltaics to achieve a nearly zero energy building.

Academician Wang also introduced the concept of geothermal power bank: “The earth is not only a huge thermal reservoir, we can take out the geothermal heat and use it, and after using it, we can also use other things, such as excess solar energy, excess wind energy, etc. The form is put underground, stored, and used as a kind of thermal storage, when needed. It is also being used internationally. It is called the earth battery. I think this is not exactly a battery. Calling it a geothermal power bank may be more vivid. ”

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Markku Markkula, chairman of the board of Espoo City

Markku Markkula, chairman of the board of Espoo City, took a Finnish power station as an example to demonstrate Espoo’s innovation in smart energy around the sustainable development goals. Espoo has been cooperating with Shanghai for 25 years, and we can continue to deepen cooperation in sustainable development. Why is the city of Espoo important on the subject of sustainable development? “According to some international surveys and studies, we have referred to many indicators and defined Espoo as the most sustainable city in Europe. This is very important to us and allows us to start policy development at the city level. Transformation can also start from the scientific and technological level, discover the cooperation between cities, and work together to make our cities smarter.”

He believes that in order to make the city better and promote the harmonious development of the city, we need to innovate to find new solutions. A harmonious city revolves around the relationship between people and society, as well as the relationship between people. To achieve these goals, we must Need to pay attention to the use of energy.

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Innovation Consul of the Consulate General of Finland in Shanghai, Mika Klemettinen, Director of the Shanghai Office of the Finnish Ministry of Commerce

Mika Klemettinen, Innovation Consul of the Consulate General of Finland in Shanghai and Director of the Shanghai Office of the Finnish Ministry of Commerce, introduced the Sino-Finnish energy cooperation-Finland’s solution. Mika Klemettinen said, “Why is it so important to strengthen Sino-Finnish cooperation? First of all, Finland is the most innovative country in the world, and she is also one of the cleanest countries in the world. At the same time, we also attach great importance to education and engineering, as well as other aspects. , These can reflect our innovation.”

He believes that solutions in the four areas of energy production, heat exchange units, smart grids, and smart buildings are very important cooperation between Finland and China.

In addition to the cooperation between cities, Mika Klemettinen also hopes that the two countries can innovate and interact between the high-levels. “We are not limited to cooperation between cities, but also hope to use these programs in the entire society to connect with society and life, and let it Become a collective, and then create a more sustainable and cleaner society, so that everyone can live a better life, can promote business growth, can provide more services. This is what we say can be A sustainable, safe and intelligent society.”

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Jussi Hulkkone, Deputy Secretary-General of the World Low Carbon Alliance City

Jussi Hulkkone, Deputy Secretary General of EIR Finnish World Low Carbon Alliance Cities, introduced some projects that EIR Finnish World Low Carbon Alliance cities have done over the years. “This organization was established in 2012 under the joint efforts of Tsinghua University and Cities. We have discussed and cooperated in many aspects around urban planning, urban transportation and green buildings, and established this organization. This organization has worked in history. The main thing is to promote research on electric vehicles and batteries. We have gathered forces from different countries and fields to jointly serve the development of low-carbon cities.”

The event started in Espoo City. Espoo has a very leading position in sustainable development throughout Europe, followed by Turku. “This is the most important city in Finland in promoting energy cooperation. We have accumulated a lot of experience in our previous development strategy and previous experience. To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, we must achieve this goal by 2030. We need to reach close cooperation with partners such as Fortum to build a circular economy.”

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Mr Yu Li from Planora gives a speech about Smart energy system works in Finland with digital twin technology. The data of the heating network is composed of off line(static) data and online(dynamic) data, The basic data of the digital twin is static data based on the network data when its completed. We can integrate the existing IOT points on the network into the existing digital twin to achieve a complete digital twin that combines dynamic data and static data,

An eco system can be created based on Digital twin, the purpose of this eco system is to simplify the data sharing between different companies. all the encrypted network data will be stored is the data sea which includes all the static data and dynamic data. company can access to this data sea through different API service for their own purpose.

Digital Twin and three control points application is the optimum way to control a district heating system, it allow the system to  match the heat production with heat demand which greatly reduce energy fluctuations, data from room thermal stats and substation is transmitted to cloud service, the supply temperature of substation will be controlled automatically according to the actual room temperature. This approach allows the heating network to respond to the actual heat demand of users from the supply side。

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Gebwell Export Director Viesturs Ozolins introduced the application of smart heating technology in carbon neutrality. “At present, the company is committed to the central heating system, which can achieve energy saving and transportation energy saving, and at the same time, it can also achieve building energy saving. We have building heat exchange units and are very experienced in this area, which can better control the building energy.”

“In many countries, especially Europe, building heat exchange stations are being used. China is no exception. Now many countries, including China, are beginning to use new systems and new technologies. These technologies focus on energy saving and they only use building heat exchange units. Energy saving can be achieved. At the same time, our company also provides an intelligent control center. We not only provide a variety of equipment, but also a variety of systems, as well as artificial intelligence improvements, and an intelligent control room, so It can combine all devices with the cloud to further improve energy use. We also pay attention to energy efficiency, especially in buildings.”

 

Energy year 2014 DISTRICT HEATING

One-third of district heat production now carbon neutral

21.01.2015

Share of domestic fuels more than half

Wood biomass and other biofuels continued in strong growth as district heat energy sources in 2014, with a growth rate of nine per cent. Analysis by Finnish Energy Industries (ET) shows that the share of wood, wood residue and other domestic renewable energy sources rose to 31 per cent. When the use of industrial secondary heat is included, the share of carbon-neutral district heat production rose to as much as 33 per cent.

“The share of domestic fuels exceeded 50 per cent for the first time,” says Director Jari Kostama from ET. One significant and growing source of additional energy in the district heat production palette is waste, which has allowed the use of fossil fuels to be reduced. The Vantaa waste-to-energy plant was commissioned in 2014, and there are other large district heating systems utilising municipal waste in Lahti, Oulu, Vaasa, Kotka, Riihimäki and Hyvinkää. The share of waste in district heating fuels was already close to 6 per cent last year.

The increased share of biofuels has also led to a reduction in the carbon dioxide emissions from district heat production. The carbon dioxide emissions from district heat production were 5.7 million tonnes, showing a drop on the previous year of four per cent. The average carbon dioxide emission was 165 g per each kilowatt-hour generated.

Fossil fuel use continued to fall – peat retained its position

Natural gas was used to generate 22 per cent of district heat and CHP electricity. The share fell four percentage points on the year before, with a 16 per cent drop in energy volume. The share of coal, 24 per cent, fell by two percentage units, in terms of energy volume it was used 10 per cent less than the year before.

Peat use has now stabilised, its share of all fuel use remaining at the previous year’s level of 13 per cent. Although the 2014 district heat production was lower than the year before due to milder weather conditions, the energy volume of the peat used to generate district heat and combined electricity remained unchanged. Oil accounted for three per cent of all fuels used, it is mostly used only in peak-load heating plants.

Share of combined heat and power generation increased

Last year, the volume of district heat produced was 34.5 TWh. As cogeneration with electricity it amounted to 25.6 TWh. The volume is a little higher than the year before. The share of cogeneration of the total district heat production rose by a good percentage point to 74 per cent.

The cogeneration output is sufficient to cover the heating requirement in an outside temperature of between 0 and -10oC, depending on location. At colder outside temperatures, peak-load heating plants are used to supplement the heat production. There were only a few such extremely cold periods in 2014. Of the heating months, only January was colder than normal. In terms of average temperature, 2014 was warmer than normal by a good degree.

The volume of electricity cogenerated with district heat was 12.6 TWh. The volume fell a little compared to the previous year. In combined heat and power generation, a third of the fuel quantity is saved compared to when they are produced separately. The emissions are reduced proportionally.

Warm weather reduced district heat sales by one per cent

Last year, district heat sales totalled 31.3 TWh. There was a slight drop on the year 2013. The drop was due to the milder weather than the year before.

At the end of 2014, there were almost 1.33 million homes with district heating, with 2.7 million people living in buildings with district heating. 55 per cent of the housing stock of the whole country were within district heating sales areas.

Most public buildings are connected to district heating networks. Almost half of the heating energy requirement for all our buildings is obtained from district heating. In the largest cities, more than 90 per cent of the heating energy requirement of the buildings is covered by district heating.

The monetary value of district heat sales was EUR 2.35 billion. The mean price of district heat inclusive of tax, including the energy fee and power charge, was 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour. The average price rose by about three per cent on the previous year.

Taxes make up a little less than 30 per cent of the average price of district heat. Factors influencing district heat price levels include e.g. the fuels used and their excise duties, system size and conurbation structure, mode of production and age of production plants, and emissions trading costs.

District cooling sales continued to grow

District cooling sales grew on the previous year by about 13 per cent, standing at 191,000 MWh. The growth resulted from the expansion of existing district cooling systems.

Helsingin Energia is the most important vendor of cooling energy, supplying 70 per cent of all the sales in Finland. In relative terms, the greatest growth was in the district cooling systems of Fortum in Espoo and that of Tampereen Kaukolämpö, both launched in 2012.

At the end of the year, the power demand of customers connected to district cooling was 224 MW, which is about 10 per cent higher than the year before.

Reliability of district heat supply excellent

Statistics collected by ET show that the reliability of district heat supply continues to be top class. In 2014, the district heating customer’s supply was interrupted on average for 1.8 hours, making the security of district heating supply 99.98 per cent. Most of the interruptions are planned and the customers are notified in advance. The work of connecting new customers to the network, planned basic improvement works and moving pipelines due to roadworks also cause supply interruptions.

The high security of supply is the result of systematic quality control, upkeep and preventive maintenance.

Open Energy year 2014 (ELECTRICITY) -slides

Further information:
Jari Kostama
, Director, Tel. 050 301 1870
Mirja Tiitinen, Adviser, Tel. 050 434 6994

© Energiateollisuus

Finnish Energy, Fredrikinkatu 51-53 B, 5th fl, PO Box 100, 00101 Helsinki   Tel. (09) 530 520 Fax. (09) 5305 2900