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> a relatively small amount of electricity demand Finland has the highest energy consumption per capita in EU. (over 2x Germany for example) Winters are cold

by doikor 4y ago

> a relatively small amount of electricity demand Finland has the highest energy consumption per capita in EU. (over 2x Germany for example) Winters are cold and we use electricity for heating a lot (gas furnaces at homes are very rare). Also bunch of energy hungry industry (paper, metal)

vladvasiliu 4y ago
That may be so, but population density is ridiculously lower than Germany's. According to Wikipedia: DE: 232/km2 FI: 16.4/km2 EU: 106/km2 They should probably be OK as far as GP's argument is concerned (space for wind turbines not bothering anyone), especially since I expect most of the people are living in the south. Not sure whether there's enough wind in the sparsely populated areas, though.
- doikor 4y ago
  Large parts of the east one is not allowed to build anything very tall (including wind turbines) due to national defense. The turbines mess with radar. But still we got our own NIMBYs who like to complain a lot. edit: And the best places to build wind is at the coast so west and south parts of the country. It just is more windy at the coast and/or open sea pretty much always.
hypertele-Xii 4y ago
On the other hand, most finns can switch to burning wood in an emergency. We have a lot of it. Just need some extra stoves.
- thematrixturtle 4y ago
  Citation needed for "most". Sure, there are wood stoves in summer cottage saunas and old rural houses, but this is not even close to possible for the average apartment dweller, and many of these apartments rely on district heating (kaukolämpö) to boot.
  - hypertele-Xii 4y ago
    There's nothing about an average apartment that, given a portable stove (which I said was needed) and some wood (which is literally everywhere), prevents it from being heated in an emergency. What exactly is there to cite?
jabl 4y ago
> we use electricity for heating a lot (gas furnaces at homes are very rare). That's a kind of a blessing actually. As opposed to central Europe, Finland is not that dependent on gas from Russia. Electricity can be produced without a pipeline dependence on Russia. That being said, Finland used to import quite a lot of electricity from Russia, and that is now gone, so there is an urgent need to invest in domestic production capacity. In the short term that certainly means much more wind, longer term hopefully more nuclear reactors (in addition to the soon upcoming OL3) coming online would be useful too.
elgenie 4y ago
The point is that it’s the high per capita demand of only 5.5M people: ~83B kWH total. The absolute amount of capacity that has to come online for self-sufficiency would be a sliver of the demand of a more populous nation.

by doikor 4y ago

vladvasiliu 4y ago

That may be so, but population density is ridiculously lower than Germany's. According to Wikipedia: DE: 232/km2 FI: 16.4/km2 EU: 106/km2 They should probably be OK as far as GP's argument is concerned (space for wind turbines not bothering anyone), especially since I expect most of the people are living in the south. Not sure whether there's enough wind in the sparsely populated areas, though.

doikor 4y ago
Large parts of the east one is not allowed to build anything very tall (including wind turbines) due to national defense. The turbines mess with radar. But still we got our own NIMBYs who like to complain a lot. edit: And the best places to build wind is at the coast so west and south parts of the country. It just is more windy at the coast and/or open sea pretty much always.

hypertele-Xii 4y ago

On the other hand, most finns can switch to burning wood in an emergency. We have a lot of it. Just need some extra stoves.

thematrixturtle 4y ago
Citation needed for "most". Sure, there are wood stoves in summer cottage saunas and old rural houses, but this is not even close to possible for the average apartment dweller, and many of these apartments rely on district heating (kaukolämpö) to boot.
- hypertele-Xii 4y ago
  There's nothing about an average apartment that, given a portable stove (which I said was needed) and some wood (which is literally everywhere), prevents it from being heated in an emergency. What exactly is there to cite?

jabl 4y ago

> we use electricity for heating a lot (gas furnaces at homes are very rare). That's a kind of a blessing actually. As opposed to central Europe, Finland is not that dependent on gas from Russia. Electricity can be produced without a pipeline dependence on Russia. That being said, Finland used to import quite a lot of electricity from Russia, and that is now gone, so there is an urgent need to invest in domestic production capacity. In the short term that certainly means much more wind, longer term hopefully more nuclear reactors (in addition to the soon upcoming OL3) coming online would be useful too.

elgenie 4y ago

The point is that it’s the high per capita demand of only 5.5M people: ~83B kWH total. The absolute amount of capacity that has to come online for self-sufficiency would be a sliver of the demand of a more populous nation.