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Better Energy and Forus partner up to bring more than 1000 MW solar to Finland

Better Energy has entered into a partnership with Finnish solar developer Forus and are expecting increased activities in Finland in the coming years. The partnership aims to install over 1000 MW solar power and accelerate the green energy transition in Northern Europe.

Image of solar panels in daylight

The goal is to build solar parks in the most sustainable way in Finland. Landowners, neighbours, and other stakeholders will be involved early in the processes, and local nature will be considered in each project.

Better Energy has been a part of the development and construction of more than 100 solar parks. In 2021 that included the connection of the largest solar park in Northern Europe to the transmission grid and constructing a total capacity of 450 MW of renewable energy.

Forus has been involved in the development and construction of 50 solar parks in Finland. The partnership will benefit from Forus’ extensive local knowledge, as they will service as the point of contact to landowners and spearhead the development of projects. The processes will be based on Better Energy’s approach to community engagement and multifunctional land use.

“Better Energy is the best possible partner for us. We share the same values and aspirations to make a change. Finland could produce over 5 times its need of power with wind and solar. Nordics should take bigger responsibility for the energy production of Europe, or EU is risking either its green targets or its autonomy,” says CEO of Forus, Eero Oksanen.

Better Energy will fund, construct, operate and own the solar power plants in Finland and the Finnish pipeline will add to growing activities in Denmark, Poland, and Sweden with an accumulated pipeline of 7GW.

 

Strengthening Finnish energy independence

Current events in Europe only enunciates the need for Finland to move towards locally produced and sustainable power production. On Saturday May 14th the Russian state-owned RAO Nordic cut off the electricity export to Finland causing already high electricity prices to rise even further.

Finland is currently a net importer of electricity with much of its own production coming from biomass and nuclear power. Solar power is not only among the cheapest forms of energy, but also the fastest to deploy in scale.

“Locally produced, clean, sustainable energy is critical not only for our climate and environment but also to European security policy. We need to move towards energy independence and away from coal, oil and gas from authoritarian regimes. On all accounts, time is of the essence,” concludes CEO of Better Energy, Rasmus Lildholdt Kjær.