The Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs, Mauri Pekkarinen: The governments in active role in increasing the use of bioenergy
The Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs, Mauri Pekkarinen, states that the use of bioenergy has already a strong support from citizens and political decision-makers in the Baltic Sea Region. He claims the Governments should create favorable conditions to increase the use of bioenergy.
All of the EU Member States have legally binding targets for the use of renewable energy, but the challenges for bioenergy vary from country to country. – For instance, there are differences in supply potential of biomass. In some countries it is not possible to use biomass in existing power plants and thus significant new investments are needed, says Minister Pekkarinen. There is a massive structural change in the global forest industry: pulpwood will be used more and more in the energy production. The effects of this structural change will be seen particularly clearly in Finland, where almost 80 per cent of renewable energy is wood-based bioenergy. – Because of that the future focus in the use of bioenergy be on forest chips, Minister Pekkarinen claims. He estimates that the use of forest chips in Finland can be increased to 15 million solid cubic meters from the present level of 5 million. – This however requires both economic steering tools, and also measures to guarantee the supply chain of bioenergy from forests to the power plants, he continues. Minister Pekkarinen believes that in the Baltic Sea Region -level the key role in increased use of sustainable bioenergy lies in technological development and cooperation. – We should all learn from each others experiences and best practices, Minister Pekkarinen says. – For example gasification technology can offer new possibilities to use bioenergy in existing power plants. And to ensure that the general attitude towards bioenergy is positive also in the future, we have to make sure that the production and the use of bioenergy is sustainable, he continues.
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