Finland

Highlights in 2018
Highlights in 2018

 

Mission Innovation impact case study

The Smart Otaniemi Innovation Ecosystem has been initiated, supporting innovation of new smart energy solutions through collaboration between industry and research actors. The ecosystem is currently running 11 pilots in real living lab circumstances. Today the ecosystem already has about 60 partners, companies and research organisations, focusing on new energy services. An important basis for the ecosystem is set by the open Internet of Things platform utilizing 5G and other new technologies.

The strategic visibility of smart energy initiatives has increased as a result of the ecosystem.

MI has provided the platform for finding partners for the strategic initiatives.

The Smart Otaniemi ecosystem is strongly integrated with Finnish MI activities. The activities within ecosystem feed the Finnish agenda for MI challenge activities. MI also helps to facilitate networking and information exchange with similar centers or ecosystems globally. It enables a global dimension for cooperation of the ecosystem through:

  • Joint calls helped to find good partners
  • Collaboration with other MI members

The Smart Otaniemi ecosystem has been recently initiated. It develops principles for sharing data and controllability across different actors. It will thus allow access of new players developing new energy services. The resulting impacts will be in emission reduction, reducing costs, stimulating companies activities for employment and export, etc.


Update on clean energy innovation policies and strategies

Finland’s clean energy innovation policies are based on the Government reports on the National Energy and Climate Strategy for 2030 and the Medium-term Climate Change Plan for 2030 submitted to Parliament, they include inter alia:

In the existing national energy and climate strategy it is stated that Finland will continue to make major investments in developing new technologies and commercialising innovations. Full use will be made of the international MI cooperation. Since the strategy was launched in 2016 several actions have been taken to fulfil the goals of the strategy.

In addition to innovation initiatives several recent policy actions in Finland’s energy market framework will spur clean energy innovations.

With minor exceptions, Finland will phase out the use of coal for energy. The share of transport biofuels will be increased to 30 per cent, and an obligation to blend light fuel oil used in machinery and heating with 10 per cent of bioliquids will be introduced. The minimum aim is to have 250 000 electric and 50 000 gas-powered vehicles on the roads. The electricity market will be developed at the regional and the European level. The flexibility of electricity demand and supply and, in general, system-level energy efficiency will be improved. Technology neutral tendering processes will be organised in 2018−2020, on the basis of which aid will be granted to cost-effective new electricity production from renewable energy.


Major innovation initiatives in 2018/19

  • In 2017, a four year program, Smart Energy Finland, was launched, the budget of the program is €100 million
  • In 2018, a three year activity, Batteries from Finland and a four year program, Smart Mobility, were launched. The budget of these programs is over €100 million
  • In 2018 several test and innovation platforms were initiated as part of Smart Energy Finland:
    • The Smart Otaniemi platform[1] involves over 60 companies. At Smart Otaniemi, we are renewing the way research and development is done, and pushing the boundaries of new energy technology. With Finnish hi-tech excellence the foundations of future standards will be built. We create more sustainable world through pilots involving everything from AI and blockchain, to aggregator business models, smart EV charging infrastructure, and 5G and IoT services.
    • Åland Island Smart Energy Platform, over 20 companies and research entities are involved. The project aims to create a piloting area for new smart energy technologies on Åland Islands. It has now entered the implementation phase. Based on smart electricity networks and innovative energy storage solutions utilization of 100% renewable energy is becoming reality. Key elements in the system are its ability to integrate decentralized production of renewable energy and to control simultaneous fluctuations in demand and production. It is also important to allow consumers to operate actively as part of the system. The area is a unique place for companies to test new energy solutions, and it will also act as a reference for Finnish export industry. In addition, it can provide a unique piloting platform attracting international investments and operators.
    • SolarX large joint project of 4 universities and over 10 companies. The aim of the consortium is to remove the technical barriers to extensive solar power integration into the electric power systems and distribution networks, as well as to enable easy access to the electricity markets for the new prosumers having local PV generation. Novel solutions will be investigated for the energy storage applications on various system levels, control and operation of micro grids, power balance and grid stability, as well as control and operation of PV inverters. Enabling technologies investigated will be AI for energy analysis and forecasting, 5G for connectivity, digital platforms for integration and block chains for exchanging energy and related data. In addition, novel primary components will be studied for medium and low voltage networks in order to enhance PV hosting capacity of these networks.
  • Batteries/energy storages Battery Recycling ecosystem, BatCircle, was created in the end of 2018. 30 companies, universities and research Institutes are involved. This ecosystem was recognized by EU Commission and Finland was asked to lead the Battery Recycling sub working group under the Battery Implementation plan.
  • In 2019, the Power to X, Blue electricity initiative was launched. Lappeenranta University of Technology and VTT are preparing the ecosystem at the moment. Discussions with 20 companies have been held and they are looking for international partners. The aim of the Blue Electrification Innovation Ecosystem project is to produce an operating model for a dynamic ecosystem based on clean, affordable and unlimited resource of electricity. The cornerstone of the ecosystem is the rapid electrification of society, including Power to X to Power solutions combined with maximum utilization of digitalization. In addition to the ecosystem theme, the project aims to produce a road map for the commercialization and research activities of the topic for coming years.

Major activities support of the Innovation Challenges in 2018/19

  • Finland has been actively involved in the operation of the EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan). The SET-Plan combines the promotion and better coordination of energy technology in the EU and the EEC countries. A total of 14 implementation plans have been prepared in the SET-Plan between 2016 and 2018. Finland has participated actively in the preparation and introduction of these implementation plans.
  • SET-Plan key action no 7. “Batteries for e-Mobility and Stationary Storage” where Finland is leading the Working Group on battery recycling. Finland has launched an ecosystem type of consortium named BatCicle, where over 30 companies, universities and research institutes are involved.
  • Finland – China (Business Finland – MoST) joint call for clean energy collaboration was opened in the end of 2018.
  • A Joint Call in the Smart Energy theme with Germany was launched and 10 joint projects were funded.

Other Mission Innovation related activity in 2018/19

Energy Forum

SLUSH Smart Energy Event December 2018


New collaborations

Annual energy-related joint call
Finland, China
Sectors: public-private
Type of collaboration: research, development and innovation
Duration: 2018
Funding amount:
2M€

 

[1] https://smartotaniemi.fi/