The total thermal capacity of the fully charged seasonal thermal energy storage is 90 gigawatt-hours. This capacity could heat a medium-sized Finnish city for as long as a year. Broken down into smaller energy units, this amount of energy is equivalent to, for example, 1.3 million electric car batteries.
In Finland there are no other gas storages. Gasgrid Finland Oy submitted its application for the certification of the TSO to the Energy Au-thority in January 2020. Final certification decision was given on 19 August 2020. Gasgrid Finland Oy is fully owned by the State of Finland.
The state administration launched in October 2022 a nationwide campaign1 to encourage citizens and enterprises to save energy. The short-term goal for the campaign has been to get over 95 per cent of Finnish households to save energy and cut down on their consumption by 5 per cent during peak hours.
The energy equivalent of as much as 1.3 million electric car batteries and could heat a medium-sized Finnish city all year round. A seasonal thermal energy storage will be built in Vantaa, which is Finland’s fourth largest city neighboring the capital of Helsinki.
According to the Energy Agency's estimate, new solar power systems were installed in nearly 30,000 small houses in Finland in 2023. In addition, Energy Authority has estimated that there are about 23 MW of PV capacity without any grid connection. These installations are mainly in summer houses.
Based on information submitted by power plant operators to the Energy Authority, total installed power generation capacity in Finland was about 23,700 MW at the end of 2023. However, the entire capacity is not available during the peak load periods.