The first award for the 2012 EARTO Innovation Prize went this year to VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which has made a breakthrough in biomass-based bio-oil production with an innovative, intelligent process that marks the beginning of a new era in the energy sector. VTT’s totally new technology makes the commercial production of bio-oil financially viable for the first time. About to be implemented on an industrial scale, the process will enable significant bio-oil production capacity by 2020 - the year by which Europe must achieve 20% of its final energy consumption from renewable energy.