VTT TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND LTD

Finland’s Experience in Biomass Heat and Power

Jani LehtoApril 28th, Fairbanks, AlaskaVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd

17/05/2016 2

Finland - according to CIA

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fi.html

• Population ~5.5 million• Land area 338 000 sq km - slightly more than two

times the size of Georgia; slightly smaller than Montana

• Climate: cold temperate; potentially subarctic but comparatively mild because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current, Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes

• Terrain: mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes and low hills

• A member of the European Union since 1995, Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro single currency at its initiation in January 1999

• In the 21st century, the key features of Finland's modern welfare state are high quality education, promotion of equality, and a national social welfare system - currently challenged by an aging population and the fluctuations of an export-driven economy

17/05/2016 3

Finland is a global forerunner in CHP

One of the main drivers of developing high-efficiency CHP has been our highdependancy on imported energy security of supply The climatic conditions are such that space heating is needed for almost nine

months a year, and during the winter lighting is needed for a large part of the day CHP is produced year around Energy efficiency is an important national goal to maximize the relatively scarce

energy resources The integration of forestry and paper sectors in Finland has meant that it has

become highly cost-effective to have CHP units utilizing forest wastes and provideheat necessary for P&P production and often for heating nearby communities Overall high national level of CHP utilization has been market driven with little

direct government support

17/05/2016 4

CHP production counts for 25 % of Finnish net electricity supply

Nuclear power27,1 %

CHP, district heating14,3 %

CHP, Industry10,7 %

Condense etc5,3 %

Net imports19,8 %

Hydro power20,1 %

Wind power2,8 %

Electricity supply in 2015: 82.5 TWh

17/05/2016 5

Electricity production from renewable energy sources is growing

Renewable 45 %(Year 2014: 39 %)

Carbon dioxide free 79 %(Year 2014: 73 %)

Hydro power25,1 %

Wind power3,5 %

Peat4,1 %

Bio mass16,2 %

Waste fuels1,2 %

Nuclear power33,7 %

Natural gas7,6 %

Coal8,3 %

Oil 0,3 %

Electricity production in 2015: 66.2 TWh

17/05/2016 6

Utilization of biomass in district heating generationhas increased significantly during the past 10 years

District heat production in 2015: 33 TWhCogenerated electricity in 2015: 11,8 TWH

Cogenerated heat 75 %Renewables 33% Domestic 56 %

17/05/2016 7

Types of wood fuel used for energy in Finland

Majority of the wood used for energy consists of side streams of conventional forestry and from low quality wood that have no competing uses Small wood is harvested from tending of young forests Logging residues, stumpwood and coarse uncommercial stemwood

are harvested from regeneration cuttings of mature forests

Photo sources: Metsäteho, mhy.fi, pirkanmaanmetsat.fi, metla.fi

17/05/2016 8

Biomass-based CHP production is commercially proven from kW to MW scale

Volter 40 Indoor: Generator output 40kW, thermal 100kW

17/05/2016 9

Case example: Ecovillage, Kempele, FinlandFinland’s first housing estate that is self-sufficient in terms of energy and off the national grid!

17/05/2016 10

Some other case examples from Finland

CHP-plant, Alpua

Production of heat and electricity for school buildings.

Excess electricity sold to the grid.

Fuel is collected by the village people from nearby forests.

CHP-plant, Nurmes

The electricity and heat produced is mainly used for the farm’s own needs.

The farm has also been supplied with a bulk solids dryer, which is used in the summer season to dry any bulk solids produced throughout the year using waste heat.

Kyyjärvi district heating plant

1 MW district heating plant for the town of 2000 inhabitants.

Fully automated plant utilizing wood chips as fuel.

Total use of biomass 10 000 m3 while producing 6 000 MWh district heat annually

17/05/2016 11

Some things to consider when thinking about(small-scale) bioenergy CHP projects

Is site grid connected? If not, price tag will be significantly higherGreenfield project is naturally more expensive than retrofit Fuel procurement, do you have access to good quality biomass? What kind of pretreatment of biomass is needed? Is biomass dryer needed or not?What kind of heat demand you have? Always demand tenderer to visit your site so that they

understand your needs and know what to offer. Use external consultants – correct invitation to tender

documents are very important.

17/05/2016 12

Conclusions

Finland is a global forerunner in CHP Biomass is local and sustainable resource for heat and power

production. It is extremely well suited for heat production Use of biomass boosts local economy and creates jobs Biomass-based CHP technologies are reliable, robust and commercially

proven from kW to MW scale However, there are no free lunches here: biomass CHP is technically

more demanding than fossil fuel based CHP The best practises, lessons learned and technologies used in Finland

for CHP can be adopted to Alaska Especially small-scale CHP based on biomass gasification could be

interesting option for remote areas in Alaska

TECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESSTECHNOLOGY FOR BUSINESS