Finland recently introduced the national goal of increasing the share of renewable energy to 60 per cent of total energy consumption. That is okay but the most important fact I think, is that Finland will finally introduce a set of financial and tax incentives to promote the development and piloting of clean technologies. It is time to walk the talk. For Finnish startups, it is essential to have opportunities for pilot references in their home market to enable further growth abroad.
Finland’s plan to introduce a biogas feed-in tariff is moving forward: the target price for the biogas feed-in tariff is €83.5 per MWh for power production and €50 per MWh when utilizing CHP (combined heat and power). According to the plan, this would only concern plants that produce more than 300 KVA of electricity. This supports fairly large plant sizes, which exceed the suggested parameters and provide adequate return on investments.
Biower, a turn-key supplier of biogas and waste water treatment plants, is a great example of a start-up which would get a boost from a feed-in tariff decision. Biower focuses on combined heat and power production with an annual processing capacity of between 10 000 tn and 275 000 tn. The company was founded in 2008 and now has reference plants outside Finland, while the home market still seems to be in waiting mode.
Instead of developing entirely its own technologies, Biower focuses on the commercialization of attractive technologies with system offerings. “Our strong network of partners and our previous experience of sales, marketing and project management enables us to grow as a global player. Our waste-to-energy solution is based on the dry thermophilic fermentation process enabling improved process efficiency with a dry feed cocktail.”, says Kari Vanhalakka, CEO and co-founder of Biower.
Kari has over 20 years experience of project management on a global scale and his target is to keep Biower on a very rapid growth path over the next few years.” We hope that the new feed-in tariff enables us to test and develop the business practice in Finland with concrete projects.”
