Report

Authors

Lieksa upper secondary school –1^st year students

Markku Haaranen

Veli-Pekka Jormanainen

Hannu Karjunen

Simo Mölsä

Project coordinators

Pekka Tolvanen (Headmaster)

Timo Nenonen (Physics teacher)

Introduction

You are now looking at a presentation made by four students of Lieksan Lukio about Finland’s energy situation. This is about the UNESCO-project Switch water on. We worked with this project for a week. We visited two local powerplants and made PowerPoint presentations of them both. In this presentation we are going to tell a bit about the energyconsumption of Finland and Lieksa.

We learnt that water is used in energy production a lot in Finland and in Lieksa. It isn’t possible to build more hydroelectric power plants because all the sources that can be used are already in use. Some improvement could be achieved for example by upgrading the plants’ equipment but it wouldn’t be very profitable.

The energy production and -usage of Finland

Finland is known for its many lakes, rivers and forests so economical energy production is a good option. The diagrams below describe Finlands energy resources and their usage. The electricity and energy diagrams might differ. This is because some production methods also produce extra heat which is then used for district heating.

District heating

District heating is used a lot in Finland. The majority of our public buildings are district heated. About 74% of the heat is produced in combination with electricity, which means that the excess energy is actually used for benefit instead of going to waste. The majority of district heating is produced with natural gas (33%), 29% is produced with coal, 18% with peat, 13% with wood and biogas and 5% with oil.

The function of district heating is based on water being warmed with some method and pumped to houses through a network of pipes, where it gives some of its heat out and returns back to the power station.

Hydroelectric power

There’s over 200 hydroelectric plants in Finland. The proportion of hydroelectric power is about 10-20% in Finland. Water can be stored in large storage basins and used to produce electricity when most needed.

All the best plant locations in Finland have already been built.

Hydroelectric power doesn’t stress nature much. It only affects fishes, that can’t move freely because of dams. These effects can be reduced by fish-stairs and breeding.

Finland’s winter makes the producing of hydroelectric power hard just when energy usage is at its highest. Nowadays it has been made possible to produce energy even during winter by regulating the flow of water in the natural waterways.

Nuclear power

There’s currently four active nuclear power plants in Finland and the fifth one is being built. About 25% of Finland’s electricity is produced with nuclear power. Two plants (third in process of building) are located in Olkiluoto, in the province of Satakunta and two in East-Uusimaa, in Loviisa. There have been discussions about the building of a sixth plant, but no contracts have been signed as of yet.

Wood fuels

Finland is one of the leading countries in the world in the usage of wood fuels. With this method tree bark, sawdust, wood chips and logging residue chips are burnt to produce heat. Almost all of wood industry’s by-products are nowadays used in energy production. Just recently a new plant has been introduced to the industry, reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea). Reed canary grass can be cultivated and therefore it is a regenerating energy source.

Wood isn’t too effective in plain electricity production, but it’s very good in the combined production of electricity and heat. Producing energy with wood is very nature friendly, it’s carbon dioxide discharges are greenhouse neutral and therefore do not add to atmosphere’s carbon dioxide content.

Peat

Peat is produced when plants decompose in low oxide and wet conditions. Peat can’t decompose properly because it lacks oxygen, so it stacks up. Peat is produced in nature on its own, but it’s also cultivated in some specialized swamps. There are a lot of peat swamps in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Russia, for example.

The EU and many environmental protection organisations have criticized peat as an energy source because of its low regeneration rate. In addition, the discharges in burning of peat are rather high compared to normal wood.

Coal

The proportion of coal in energy production in Finland is over 10%. However, it’s quite expensive to use due to emissions trading, which makes natural gas a more viable option. The use of coal will probably decrease because of this. Also, the emissions of coal are quite high when burnt.

Natural gas

The proportion of natural gas in energy production in Finland is over 10%. It’s the largest district heat producer and it’s drilled up from the ground much like oil. The use of natural gas is expected to increase in Finland and the whole of Europe. Natural gas is one of the most nature friendly fossil fuels, it doesn’t produce any sulphur dioxide when burnt. Its carbon dioxide discharges are also quite low.

Nord Pool Spot AS

Finland is part of a huge electricity network that includes Norway, Sweden and Sjaelland which is a part of Denmark. The network is also connected to the rest of Europe. This means that Finland actually trades electricity with these countries, and also with Russia. A large part of Nord Pool’s electricity is produced by nature friendly means.

Lieksa

Basic info

Population ~13 700

Population density ~4 inhabitants per km²

Area 4067,72 km² of which 642,94km² is water

The current energy situation in Lieksa

Lieksa has two main energy producers at the moment. These are hydroelectric power and energy produced from wood fuels. As mentioned earlier, we visited two power plants during the week: VAPO power plant (energy from wood fuels) and Lieksa’s hydroelectric power plant (energy from flowing water). The PowerPoint presentations we made can be found by clicking the links below.

VAPO

Lieksa hydroelectric power plant

This diagram shows the sources from which energy comes to Lieksa. (The figures supplied the local power company, Pohjois-Karjalan sähkö OY)

How does a wood fuel power plant work?

Water is boiled in the tube that goes through the firing chamber, the steam spins the turbine, generating electricity. The steam is still warm, so it’s used for district heating and factories that use steam. Then it flows back to the watertank and to the firing chamber, repeating the process.

How does a hydroelectric power plant work?

As water flows down from the water pool towards the turbine, its potential energy transforms into kinetic energy which is then shifted to the turbine. The turbine transfers its kinetic energy to the generator, that transforms it into electricity by rotating a wire inside a magnetic field. This is also known as Electromagnetic induction. Pictures of a real plant can be found in the Powerpoint presentation we made.

More water power in Finland?

A few years ago a survey was made to find out if it was possible to increase production of hydroelectricity. Results of the survey:

400 MW could be achieved by improving hydro power plants that are already in existence.
300 MW by building more plants to locations that are not protected.
1500 MW by building to locations that are protected.

Total potential: 2200 MW

For comparation, the new nuclear power plant that is being built is going to produce 1600 MW.

References:

http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_energia.html

http://www.motiva.fi/fi/kuluttajat/pientalonlammitysjarjestelmat/lammonkehitysmuuttaaenergianlammoksi/kaukolampo.html

http://www.energia.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/lehdistotiedotteet/kaukol%c3%a4mp%c3%b6vuosi%202006.html

http://www.energia.fi/fi/sahko/sahkontuotanto/vesivoima/Vesivoima.html

http://www.energia.fi/fi/sahko/sahkontuotanto/puuenergia

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ydinvoima

http://www.energia.fi/fi/sahko/sahkontuotanto/puuenergia

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turve

http://www.energia.fi/fi/sahko/sahkontuotanto/turve