Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis visited Helen’s Eiranranta heat pump plant
Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, responsible for economy and productivity as well as implementation and simplification, visited Helen’s Eiranranta heat pump plant in Helsinki on 8 June. The focus of the visit was on how clean electricity can also be harnessed on a large scale for the transformation of heating and cooling as part of Europe-wide market-based energy transition.
The European Commission is currently preparing an Electrification Action Plan and a Heating and Cooling Strategy. The aim is to accelerate electrification, reduce the use of fossil fuels, and strengthen energy affordability, security of supply and Europe’s competitiveness.
Heating and cooling account for around half of the EU’s energy consumption, and production still remains heavily dependent on fossil energy sources. The need to combine emission reductions, energy efficiency and functioning markets in this sector is therefore evident. The Commission’s forthcoming strategy will emphasise energy system integration, the development of district heating and cooling, and the recovery of waste heat.
The Eiranranta heat pump plant, which has received NextGenerationEU funding from the European Union, is a concrete example of this development. The plant uses low-emission electricity and heat stored in the environment to produce district heating and cooling for Helsinki. At the same time, it shows that the electrification of heating is not about the deployment of individual technologies, but about smarter integration of the entire energy system: electricity, heat pumps, networks and waste heat operate as one whole.
In Finland, where the energy system is already largely low-emission, solutions are examined at system level. Clean electricity production, functioning networks and flexible solutions create the conditions for advancing electrification cost-effectively and without compromising security of supply. At the same time, the need for a predictable operating environment that supports investment and for market-based solutions that encourage innovation and efficiency is emphasised.
Eiranranta is a practical example of the progress of the next phase of electrification. When electricity, heat and waste heat are combined, emissions can be reduced, energy efficiency improved and Europe’s energy security strengthened at the same time. At the same time, practical solutions such as the Eiranranta plant help point the EU’s way towards a new and lower-emission energy era.
