By Anders Lorenzen

The Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has won the right to build the largest offshore wind farm in Finland. It will be the first Finnish offshore wind farm to be built in open water.

The Korsnäs offshore wind farm will be constructed 15 kilometres off the Finnish coast near the municipality of Korsnäs and it will have an estimated capacity of 1.3 gigawatts (GW). It is projected to cost between 2 and 3 billion euros and is expected to create enough electricity to power and heat (where electrical heating is installed) 2 million Finnish apartments or 250,000 individual Finnish homes.

The project will be a joint venture between Vattenfall and the Finnish state-owned land administrator Metsahallitus which manages the land and water areas of Finland.

Commenting on the project Elina Kivioja, CEO at Vattenfall Oy said: “With this project, Vattenfall is expanding its role in Finland; from one of the largest electricity retailers to a significant renewable energy producer.’

Towards net-zero

Juha S. Niemelä, Director General of Metsähallitus added: “We are very pleased to partner with Vattenfall, which presented strong experience on large-scale offshore wind projects and we are confident that this project will benefit the people of Korsnäs, the economic zone around Vaasa as well as the state of Finland.’

Finland has set an ambitious goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2035, and it is hoped that the Korsnäs offshore wind farm will be a key contributor towards achieving that target.

The Korsnäs offshore wind farm project is in its early development stages and no start date has yet been set for construction to begin, but it is expected to be operational in the early 2030s.

Nuclear energy represents the largest share of Finland’s energy production with the country having very few fossil fuel reserves;  most is imported.