Fortum plans to increase use of renewable fuels in Stockholm
Fortum Corporation Press release 25 November 2009
Fortum plans to increase use of renewable fuels in Stockholm Fortum plans to significantly reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of its power and heat production over the next decade. The plan in Stockholm, Sweden, includes, among others, new bio fuel -fired production and replacing fossil fuels with climate neutral fuels in existing production. Already today 87% district heat in Stockholm is produced with renewable or waste-derived fuels. Heat is produced both in combined heat and power (CHP) plants as well as heat-only facilities. In Fortum's largest production unit, Värtan CHP plant, the share of renewable energy - thermal (seawater), bio oil and olive pits - is nearly 45%. The remaining fuel need is covered with coal and electricity. The plan is to increase the share of renewable energy in Värtan's existing units to 70% by 2015. Fortum's plan to reduce CO2 emissions calls for an increase in CHP production. This would reduce the use of electricity-driven heat pumps in district heat production and increase the amount of renewable electricity on the Nordic power market. Therefore, Fortum is investigating the possibility to invest in several new production units. These include, among others, a new waste-fired unit in Brista CHP that could be commissioned in 2013 and a new bio fuel -fired unit in Värtan CHP that could be commissioned in 2016. Furthermore, Fortum is already looking into a completely new CHP plant that could be commissioned 2020. "CHP production is an environmentally sound solution regardless of the fuel used due to its almost 90% energy efficiency. However, we want to further reduce our environmental impact and plan to increase the share of renewables in our production. We estimate that the share of fossil fuels used in heat production in Stockholm could be reduced down to 5% in 2020 by replacing coal with bio fuels in Värtan and by adding new units to the heating system," says Per Langer, Executive Vice President responsible for Fortum's Swedish operations. A preliminary estimate of the plan's value is today about EUR 1 billion over 11 years. Investments decisions for each part of the plan will be made separately and will be based on Fortum's normal investment criteria. Fortum expects its annual capital expenditure in the next 4-5 years to be within a range of EUR 0.8-1.2 billion, as earlier announced. Fortum Corporation Corporate Communications Further information: Jens Bjöörn, Head of Communications, Fortum Värme, tel: +46 70 298 41 25 Pauliina Vuosio, Vice President, Financial Communications, Fortum Corporation, tel. +358 50 453 2383