Wind Power Year 2019: All new wind turbines were built without governmental subsidy
Wind power construction continued last year in Finland and will continue to be active in the coming years. All 56 wind turbines completed in Finland in 2019 were built on without governmental subsidy. Most of the wind turbines produced in Finland are Finnish-owned.
In 2019, 56 new wind turbines with a total capacity of 243 megawatts were completed in Finland. At the end of 2019, Finland’s total wind power capacity was 2,284 MW. Wind power generated approximately 6 TWh of electricity during the year. Production accounts for seven per cent of Finland’s electricity consumption and nine per cent of electricity production. The power plants built last year were completed during late 2019, so they did not have much time to increase the annual output of 2019. The amount of electricity generated by wind power has now left behind fossil forms of power generation.
Wind power is the most cost-effective way to build new electricity production, and market-based construction has started rapidly in Finland. “In addition to the continued construction of wind power in Finland, it is particularly wonderful to see that all wind turbines completed last year have been built on market terms without state support. This trend will not change in the case of onshore wind: new market-based wind power is under construction in Finland for several hundred megawatts. The share of wind power in Finland’s electricity generation will grow rapidly in the early 2020s, ”says Anni Mikkonen, Managing Director of the Finnish Wind Power Association.
“In order to keep up the momentum in wind power construction and to keep investors interested in the Finnish market, the ambition of further wind power construction remains an ambitious target in the National Energy and Climate Strategy, which will be updated this year. Official goals are important indications of the political climate and the will, even though financial support, especially for onshore wind, is no longer needed, ”Mikkonen continues.
Most of the wind power is owned by Finns
The four largest owners of wind farms are Finnish companies and they together hold about 50 per cent of Finnish wind power capacity. In total, 69 per cent of Finland’s wind power is owned by Finns. During the year, only wind turbines of European origin were built in Finland, while Danish Vestas is still the market leader in wind turbines.