Finland Times

 

The office of energy company Fortum in Espoo. Photo- Lehtikuva.

Energy companies Fortum and St1 are set to begin collaboration in building Finland’s first industrial-scale geothermal pilot heat plant.

 

St1 will plan the pilot production plant estimated to be completed in 2016, said a release from Fortum.

 

“Our goal is to reduce emissions caused by district heating. Geothermal heat is emissions-free energy that hasn’t yet been utilised in Finland on this scale. It increases heat production flexibility and reduces emissions in the Espoo region,” said Fortum Vice President Jouni Haikarainen.

 

A construction site for St1’s geothermal production plant is being sought in the area where Fortum’s Otaniemi or Kivenlahti heat plants are located, and Fortum will buy the heat energy produced by the plant for Espoo’s district heating network.

 

The geothermal heat plant is estimated to have a production capacity of up to 40 megawatts of geothermal heat energy. With that output, Fortum can cover as much as 10% of the district heat needs in the Espoo region.

 

Geothermal heat production does not use fuel. Thus, the plant will not generate any emissions into the atmosphere.

 

Geothermal energy is produced by drilling two holes several kilometres deep into the ground. Water is fed into one of the holes. As the water heats up in the ground, it rises through the other hole. At the heat plant, the heated water goes through a heat exchanger and then into the district heating network.