ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The promotion of energy efficiency is part of the national climate policy and the EU climate policy, which aim to reduce the amount of energy required to produce services and products. Improved energy efficiency will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption, as well as achieve cost savings.
The Energy Authority governs and guides energy efficiency actions which are included in the administrative branch of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. The most important of these include energy efficiency agreements, energy surveys, regional energy advice, as well as preparation of ecological design and product group specific energy labels. The Energy Authority is obligated to govern the mandatory energy surveys of large enterprises and cost-benefit analyses related to combined heat and power generation and the utilisation of waste heat. The Energy Authority is also responsible for impact assessments of policies and reports to be submitted to the European Commission. The Energy Authority purchases many of its energy efficiency promotion tasks from Motiva Oy each year.
Reporting from data centres to the European database has started
Operators of data centres with a power demand of at least 500 kW must report their data to the European Commission’s database from autumn 2024 onwards. In the next years, the reports on the previous year’s activities must be submitted annually by 15 May.
Solar electricity production capacity grew by 45% in 2020 - nearly 300 megawatts in small-scale production
The small-scale production of solar electricity has been growing quickly in recent years. Installed capacity has increased more than tenfold since 2016. At the end of 2020, approximately 293 megawatts of solar electricity production capacity was connected to the electricity network. According to preliminary data, the capacity grew by 91 megawatts that year.