6 September 2017
Finland opens its first offshore wind farm
© Hannele Holttinen
Last week marked a milestone as Finland opened its first ever offshore wind farm. The 42 MW Tahkoluoto wind farm was officially opened – ahead of schedule – by Finnish energy developer Suomen Hyötytuuli.
The project received the Finnish feed-in-tariff (83,5 €/MWh for 12 years) as well as a €20 million demonstration subsidy, and first started with a demonstration project (the Pori pilot project) back in 2010. At that time, Siemens supplied a 2.3 MW wind turbine to Suomen Hyötytuuli. This turbine is still grid connected but is now surrounded by 10 4MW turbines that were installed earlier this year. The wind farm is 1,2 kilometres from shore and at a water depth 9 metres. Of great interest is the fact that the Tahkoluoto wind farm is the first offshore wind farm designed for icy conditions, harnessing technological solutions for arctic conditions.
Speaking about this technological innovation and the possibilities it opens, Suomen Hyötytuuli’s chairman of the board Tuomo Kantola stated that Suomen Hyötytuuli now has “a ready concept for planning and building offshore wind power on an industrial scale”.
