Vattenfall, a Swedish energy company, and Metsähallitus, a Finnish state enterprise, have formed a joint venture to build a 1.3 GW offshore wind farm in Finland. The land and water areas of the Finnish state are managed by Metsähallitus. The offshore wind farm, which will be situated in Korsnäs off the west coast of Finland, will have the ability to produce 5 TWh of clean energy annually.
The offshore wind facility is anticipated to be operational in the early 2030s and may require an investment of between €2 billion and €3 billion. Clean energy produced will be sufficient to meet more than two million apartment homes or around 250,000 electricity heated individual houses in Finland.
Metsähallitus will be crucial to Finland’s achievement of its aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2035. In September 2022, Vattenfall chose to exercise its rights to develop the N-7.2 offshore wind project off the coast of Germany. The 980 MW project, which is 85 km from the island of Borkum, was given to Vattenfall by RWE Renewables, a subsidiary of the German energy company RWE. Reportedly, in order to develop and construct the wind farm, the company had notified the German authority of its decision to exercise its right of entry to the N-7.2 project.
REGlobal’s Views: This offshore wind project, the first large project of its kind in Finland, will establish Vattenfall as an important player in the country’s emerging offshore wind market. Since Metsähallitus plans to hold more such tenders in the near future, there is significant opportunity for Vattenfall to keep expanding its Finnish renewable energy portfolio.
