The plant was originally scheduled to be decommissioned by the end of 2024.
The decision will have a significant impact on Finland’s emission reduction targets. Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori (NCP) stressed on Tuesday press release the plant has been the country’s third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, accounting for about two percent of the country’s emissions and 20 percent of the city’s emissions.
“It is possible to hand over the power plant outside the planned schedule, because in recent years we have worked hard and invested significantly in renewable and emission-free heat and electricity production,” said Juha-Pekka Weckström, CEO of Helen.
Helen has set a goal to make energy production carbon neutral by 2035.
According to the revised decommissioning schedule, the power plant will be in reserve for the heating season 2022–2023 until a bio-based heating plant is built in Vuosaari, in the north-eastern part of the Finnish capital.
Vapaavuori thanked the city-owned energy company for its determined efforts to find alternative energy solutions to meet the energy needs of the local population without a coal-fired power plant.
“Helen and the City of Helsinki have systematically developed new options and technologies to replace the plant,” he said.
The decommissioning will also remove the landscape-shaping coal stacks from the site and, over time, release the plot for public use. Vapaavuori considered that the area offers huge opportunities on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
“Unique urban and beach areas are being freed from the construction site. The power plant area has huge potential to develop into a new center for city life, ”he imagined.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT