Wind power becoming the largest renewable electricity producer in 2024
According to statistics compiled by Finnish Wind Power Association in June, wind power construction continues to be strong. At the beginning of the year 2024, 60 new power plants with a total capacity of 377 megawatts were built in Finland. Including the turbines to be completed in the rest of the year, a total of around 1 100 megawatts of new wind power capacity will be completed this year, bringing the country’s total wind power capacity to more than 8 000 megawatts. In 2025 wind power capacty is expected to be completed with a production capacity even higher than this year, around 1 400 megawatts.
The year 2024 started on a positive and historic note for wind power generation, with a record hourly wind power production of 6 076 megawatts of electricity generated in one hour in March. The same tailwind can also be seen in construction of wind power, which continues strong this year, according to the semi-annual statistics complied by the Finnish Wind Power Association. By the end of June, there were a total of 1 660 wind turbines producing clean energy in Finland. The combined power of the wind turbines is now 7 322 megawatts and by the end of the year it is predicted to rise more than 8 000 megawatts.
In 2023 wind power covered just over 18 % of Finland’s electricity consumption and at that time wind power lagged behind hydropower in terms of electricity production. With the wind power capacity completed in 2023 and 2024 wind power will overtake hydropower in electricity production this year, in which case wind power will grow to become the largest form of electricity production based on renewable sources.
”We are happy to welcome the new wind turbines as part of the growing wind turbine fleet! Next year also looks good in terms of construction as well as the following years based on the network connection agreements made. However the current high intrest rates and construction costs are delaying new investment decisions as well as delays in new investments that consume a lot of electricity. A lot of giant investments are now being made globally in new industries such as hydrogen and green steel. Finland also needs to make sure that we get our share of these investments, which also speed up clean energy investments”, emphasizes Anni Mikkonen, CEO of the Finnish Wind Power Association.
North Ostrobothnia and Ostrobothnia show up in the statistics as traditionally the centers of wind power construction in terms of the production capacity built in the beginning of the year because more than 50 % of the new capacity is located in these provinces. Still, when looking at the municipalities with the most production capacity completed for the period of the beginning of 2024, the top ten are also two municipalities in Central Finland, Kyyjärvi and Karstula, and Eurajoki and Pori in Satakunta. “It’s really good that wind power is being built in different parts of Finland and more and more municipalities are benefiting from property tax revenues. The recently published working group report on wind power in Eastern Finland shows that it is not easy or cheap to install wind power in the eastern parts of the country, but it is possible. It must be understood that strengthening the vitality of Eastern Finland with the help of large investments will bring many good things in the long run. The construction of wind power in Eastern Finland is indeed an opportunity to create genuine vitality, and that opportunity should not be missed. A solution to the matter must be found”, stresses Mikkonen.
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