Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference 2017 kicks off on Wednesday 29 March in Messukeskus, Helsinki. This year the event focuses on how to replace fossil fuels in a sustainable way.
Finland is hosting this year’s Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference (29-30 March, Messukeskus, Helsinki) as part of the centenary celebrations of Finland’s independence. The Finnish government also has a strong intention to develop the country towards a low-carbon bioeconomy. Bioenergy is already the largest energy source, but investments and plans in particular in the industrial and transport sectors are significant. Several biorefineries are under development.
”We need to achieve the challenging targets set in the Paris agreement and at the same time we need to keep our economies competitive. Our forests can play a significant part in all of this. Forests can provide us carbon sinks and sustainable materials, energy, products and services. All this is known as the bioeconomy”, said Mika Lintilä, Minister of Economic Affairs of Finland.
Nordic Baltic Bioenergy Conference 2017 with around 200 experts in the field will discuss options to replace the remaining fossil fuels in a sustainable way and the role of bioenergy in that task. The three-day conference – co-organized by the Bioenergy Association of Finland and the Swedish Bioenergy Association – will look at bioenergy policy and markets and has dedicated sessions for biofuels, combined heat and power generation (CHP), pellet markets, heating and services, other biomass markets and new technologies. Both conference days are finished with expert panels. On the third day, there is a study tour to Porvoo region.
”Sustainable bioenergy has a key role to play in future efforts towards the goals of the Paris agreement and in replacing fossil fuels. It can already be seen that the role will be more significant in heating, cooling and transport sectors. In electricity production the importance of other renewable energy sources will grow in the coming decades”,says Harri Laurikka, Managing Director of the Bioenergy Association of Finland.
Gustav Melin, Managing Director of the Swedish Bioenergy Association continues: ”We are happy to be in Helsinki celebrating Finland’s 100 year anniversary. Our conference is a Baltic Sea region event, and today the Baltic Sea is really becoming the Green Sea. We have impressive renewable bioenergy investments in most big cities around the Sea. Helsinki, Vilnius and Copenhagen are pursuing investments in Combined Heat and Power from bioenergy and Fortum recently finished their €550 million euro investment in CHP in Stockholm. This conference is about how to continue replacing fossils in the Baltic Sea region and gives great opportunities for business development.”
More information:
Markku Rajala, Special Adviserto Minister of Economic Affairs of Finland, Mika Lintilä
Tel. +358 295 047480
Harri Laurikka, Managing Director, Bioenergia ry – the Bioenergy Association of Finland, firstname.secondname(a)bioenergia.fi, Tel. +358-40-1630 465
Gustav Melin, Managing Director, Svebio – the Swedish Bioenergy Association, firstname.secondname(a)svebio.se, Tel. +46705 244400