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Helen, a Finnish energy company, is building a nuclear and renewables-driven heat production complex in Helsinki, featuring a 200 MW electric boiler plant and a heat storage facility. Construction is set to begin in 2025.
September 12, 2024 Patrick Jowett
Image: Josefiina Alanen, Wikimedia Commons
Energy producer Helen is building an electric boiler plant and thermal battery storage project in Helsinki, Finland.
The company claimed that the project will be Europe’s largest electric boiler plant. It will have a capacity of 200 MW, with four 50 MW electric boilers. A Helen spokesperson told pv magazine that the boilers are powered by nuclear and renewable electricity and therefore carbon-free.
“There is no obstacle to powering the boilers by solar electricity,” the spokesperson said. “Actually, the heat battery that will be connected with the boilers can use the volatile electricity production, thus providing stability to energy markets by storing the electricity produced during the peak production hours when the demand is low.”
The heat storage facility next to the plant will include two 40-meter-high heat batteries with a total capacity of 1,000 MWh. Each battery can be charged and discharged at 100 MW.
“The plant, operating as a single complex, will be able to efficiently exploit the volatility of the electricity market by storing electricity at lower spot prices and then providing it as heat at a competitive price to our customers,” said Juhani Aaltonen, VP of green investments at Helen. “On the other hand, heat storage can also be discharged, allowing it to offset the highest spot electricity prices.”
The plant will be built in Hanasaari, where a coal-fired power plant was shut down in April 2023. Construction is set to begin in 2025, with the plant expected to be operational by the 2026-27 heating season. A Helen spokesperson said the project has not received any public subsidies.
Helen recently unveiled plans to build a large-scale district-heating complex. Germany’s MAN Energy Solutions is supplying a 33 MW air-to-water heat pump for the project – the largest ever used for a district-heating plant.
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