CHAPTER 14
Renewable Energy in Finland: From
a Production-Centric
to a Consumption-Centric System
Sarah Kilpeläinen, Pami Aalto, and Juha Kiviluoma
Introduction
The 2019 programme of the Government of Finland targets carbon
neutrality by 2035 as a strategic priority, and shortly afterwards, negative emissions with the help of carbon sinks (Government of Finland
2019). This follows the decisions of consecutive governments that gradually introduced more demanding targets, spurred on by the ambitious
commitments of the Nordic neighbours (Toivanen et al. 2017). Global
policy debates leading to the 2015 Paris climate agreement heavily
underpin these developments. During the late 2010s, the idea of renewable energy becoming the cornerstone of the Finnish energy system
became mainstreamed. It also became normal to expect a full-scale energy
S. Kilpeläinen · P. Aalto (B)
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
e-mail: pami.aalto@tuni.fi
J. Kiviluoma
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland
© The Author(s) 2021
P. Midford and E. Moe (eds.), New Challenges and Solutions
for Renewable Energy, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54514-7_14
349
Renewable Energy in Finland: From
a Production-Centric
to a Consumption-Centric System
Sarah Kilpeläinen, Pami Aalto, and Juha Kiviluoma
Introduction
The 2019 programme of the Government of Finland targets carbon
neutrality by 2035 as a strategic priority, and shortly afterwards, negative emissions with the help of carbon sinks (Government of Finland
2019). This follows the decisions of consecutive governments that gradually introduced more demanding targets, spurred on by the ambitious
commitments of the Nordic neighbours (Toivanen et al. 2017). Global
policy debates leading to the 2015 Paris climate agreement heavily
underpin these developments. During the late 2010s, the idea of renewable energy becoming the cornerstone of the Finnish energy system
became mainstreamed. It also became normal to expect a full-scale energy
S. Kilpeläinen · P. Aalto (B)
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
e-mail: pami.aalto@tuni.fi
J. Kiviluoma
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland
© The Author(s) 2021
P. Midford and E. Moe (eds.), New Challenges and Solutions
for Renewable Energy, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54514-7_14
349