Today, Finland is one of the leading users of renewable energy sources in the world. http://www.cleantechfinland.fi/solutions/renewable_energy/

Renewable energy

Renewable energy sources have an essential role in decreasing greenhouse gases in energy production and fighting climate change.

The European Union has set the target of increasing the share of renewables in energy use to 20 percent by the year 2020. For Finland, the EU has set a goal to increase the share of renewable energy use from the current level of 25 percent to 38 percent by 2020.

Today, Finland is one of the leading users of renewable energy sources in the world. Renewables provide one quarter of Finland's total energy consumption and account for more than one quarter of its power generation.

The most important renewable sources of energy in Finland include bioenergy - wood and wood-based fuels in particular - as well as hydropower, wind power, ground-source heat and solar energy.

Meeting the obligation set by the EU requires an immense increase in the use of wood-based energy, biomass, heat pumps, biogas and wind energy. This demand will also boost technology development and strengthen the position of Finnish technology and know-how providers in the global market.
Bioenergy

Finnish companies have decades of experience and strong position in exporting bioenergy technology.

Advanced technology covers the entire chain, from collection of wood-based material to the boilers using biomass.

Finnish companies in the forest and energy industries are also currently developing new generation biofuels from wood-based raw materials and also non-wood and non-food vegetable matter.
Solar

World solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations reached a record high of 5.95 gigawatts in 2008, representing growth of 110 percent over the previous year. The strong growth is expected to continue.

Finland has invested in development work for solar cells, panels and heating systems since 1980s. Today, the Finnish technology is in use worldwide for powering telecom base stations, water pumping, health centres and schools in remote areas, especially in developing countries.
Wind

Wind power is one of the world's fastest-growing areas of environmental technology. Its global markets have grown 25-30 percent annually during the first eight years of the 21st century.

Although Finland's wind power production only accounts for 0.3 percent of the Finnish electricity consumption, Finnish wind power technology providers with advanced technologies are significant players in the markets worldwide.
Facts of the sector:

* Maintaining the current global carbon dioxide emissions level alone would require additional investments of EUR 300 billion per year between now and 2050. Halving emissions by 2050 would require investments of EUR 825 billion per year, but it would also decrease oil demand by 27 percent by that year, according to the IEA.
* Today, Finland is one of the leading users of renewable energy sources in the world.

Companies

* AW-Energy (Ocean energy)
* Biovakka (Bioenergy)
* Preseco (Bioenergy)
* ST 1 Biofuels (Bioenergy)
* Watrec (Bioenergy)
* Doranova (Bioenergy)
* Beneq (Solar)
* GreenStream Network
* Biower (Bioenergy)
* Climate Wedge
* WinWinD (Wind)