The offshore wind power in planning will bring billions in tax benefits and thousands of jobs to Finland
According to a recent report, the planned Finnish offshore wind power capacity can bring Finland an estimated 3.2 billion tax benefits and employ 148,000 person-years of work for Finns. Achieving the full benefit potential of offshore wind power requires increasing the degree of domesticity of the projects. This is possible if Finland implements an ambitious energy policy and thus enables the creation of functional domestic subcontracting chains in Finland.
The sustainable business consulting company Gaia Consulting Oy investigated the regional economic effects of Finnish offshore wind power on behalf of the Finnish Wind Power Association (FWPA). At the moment, more than 33 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power are under planning in Finland. The projects under development are estimated to be completed by 2045. If 75 percent of the amount is completed, the tax benefits for Finland from real estate and corporate taxes and the taxation of gainful employment will be an estimated 3.8 billion euros. The completion of the amount would also mean 148,000 person-years of work in Finland.
“According to FWPA’s view, there will be 25 GW of offshore wind power in Finland in 2040. This means a production of 100 terawatt hours. Of the various scenarios in Gaia’s report, 75 percent of the current projects implemented correspond to our understanding of the offshore wind power capacity in Finland in 2040,” says Anni Mikkonen, CEO of the Finnish Wind Power Association.
The beneficial potential of offshore wind power can also be even greater. If 90 percent of the projects are realized according to the best scenario, it would mean tax revenues of up to 4.5 billion and 224,000 person-years of work for Finns.
“The employment and tax effects of offshore wind power projects on the home country are affected by the number of projects and the degree of domesticity. Achieving the full potential requires increasing the degree of domesticity of the projects, which in turn requires investments in the value chains of offshore wind power,” sums up Gaia’s consultant Ville Kirjonen.
The growth of offshore wind power requires political support
“The construction of offshore wind power in the Baltic Sea is now starting and the results of the survey clearly show that the potential of Finnish offshore wind power can be enormous if we now make an ambitious energy policy. All states in the Baltic Sea region are currently planning offshore wind power. With an ambitious industrial policy, subcontracting chains for offshore wind power can be brought to Finland, through which know-how and components can also be exported to other countries in the Baltic Sea region”, Mikkonen states and adds: “For example, a Swedish project located in the sea area between Finland and Sweden will use the port with the best services. That port can very well be in Finland, as long as we get started with Finnish projects quickly.”
Download the statement (In Finnish)
(Machine translation)