Helsinki, Finland - 2001

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and District Heating (DH) have long been the basis of Helsinki’s energy supply – without this system, emissions would be much higher in the city. Energy consumption in heating is a critical part of the Helsinki’s struggle with CO2 emissions. Of Helsinki’s consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions, 44% comes from heating, 30% from the use of electricity and 20% from traffic. In 1998, trials with District Cooling (DC) systems began and by 2001 they were permanently introduced to the city. The production of DC is based on renewable and other energy sources otherwise wasted.

Helsinki Energy produces over 90% of the heat demand of the city in CHP plants with over 93% of buildings connected to the DH network. Power is generated in the same process, exceeding the consumption in Helsinki. So excess electricity is sold to the Nordic market, generating revenues for the City. DH and DC are local products available to households - they compete with other heating and cooling methods and customers choose what to buy on a free market.

While the main sources of CHP production in Helsinki are gas and coal. A growing part of DH and DC energy is based on resources that otherwise would be wasted. This means the efficiency of the CHP system exceeds 90%, generating an annual saving of 40% CO2 emissions. Future plans will shift generation further away from fossil fuels to renewable sources.

District Cooling (DC) is outsourced production and distribution of cooling energy for air-conditioning and cooling of offices and residential buildings. DC is delivered to customers via chilled water in a separate distribution network. During winter, cooling energy is obtained from cold seawater through heat exchangers. In summer, condensing heat from power generation is diverted to absorption chillers for DC, which increases the efficiency of thermal power plants.

Additionally, a heat pump plant utilizes waste heat energy from purified sewage. This facility opened in 2006 and is the world’s largest production plant, combining DH, DC and heat capture from sewage water and sea water. This plant has a 90MW capacity for DH and 60MW capacity for DC, and is projected to cut CO2 emissions by 80% compared to alternative forms of production.