Bioenergy RES hybrids in Finland

Bioenergy has a central position in Finland to achieve its targets to produce over 50% of the final energy consumption by renewable energy sources (RES) in a sustainable manner and halve the use of imported oil for domestic purposes by 2030. Bioenergy is foreseen as a fast way to achieve the targets and increase the level of energy self-sufficiency. Currently, bioenergy represents over 80% of the renewable energy production in Finland and over 15% of total power production. In the transport sector, the target is to increase the RES share to 40% by 2030. High share of bioenergy is forest residues, and bioenergy based energy production is in strong relation to forest industry. Finland's ambitious renewable energy targets raise questions about the availability of sustainable bioenergy for all end-uses with cost-competitive price. By integrating other RE sources together with bioenergy pressure from the bioenergy availability can be released and it can be used in the most profitable end-uses. As a storable and dispatchable source of energy, bioenergy simultaneously allows larger amount of variable renewable generation to be integrated to the system by creating flexibility. Hybrid system can offer cost savings in energy production, especially during the winter peak consumption periods, which are typical in the Finnish climate conditions. In the best case, hybrid system can lead to improved system efficiency and component lifetime with respect to utilization of a single energy source. In Finland, hybrid technologies based on both fossil and renewable sources are already widely applied in heating solutions in households. Since fully renewable large-scale solutions are not that common yet, the status of bioenergy RES hybrids is mainly reviewed through case examples in this report. A high potential for bioenergy RES hybrids is foreseen in the heating sector. By replacing bioenergy consumption there, more resources are available for example in the transport sector, where exist less options to cut emissions compared to heat and power sectors.