Korkia and the project developer Semecon from Ylivieska are developing more than 200 megawatts of wind power in North Ostrobothnia. The project, located in the Vasama area in the vicinity of the town Ylivieska, is a hybrid one, meaning that in addition to wind power, solar power will be made available also. The solar power project in the area has just been granted the required permits, and the wind power project is well into the permit-granting process.
The Vasama solar power project was granted its planning and building permits. The wind power project has gathered good speed as well, and it is about to enter the environmental impact assessment and zoning processes as early as this spring.
”Currently, together with our collaborating partners, we have more than 2 GW of solar and wind power projects in the pipeline in Finland. The special feature of the Vasama solar park is the fact that it will be built next to a wind farm which is still in the planning process,” says Korkia’s Matti Manner.
The permitting processes have been speeded up by the fact that the project is located far from habitation: the solar park will occupy a set-aside lot of land, previously used for cultivating crops.
”Both solar and wind energies have a significant role in Finland’s future energy system. The different types of energy production supplement one another because their output power does not come about simultaneously,” says Manner.
Because North Ostrobothnia can already boast of a great deal of wind power, Semecon’s Olli Malkamäki is pleased to see other forms of renewable energy production in the region.
”We don’t know for sure yet if the Vasama solar park will be started before the wind farm or if they will be built together over the same period of time. It would be optimal to build them concurrently, because that would allow us to gain cost benefits in, say, the grid connection,” noted Malkamäki.
The Vasama hybrid project is scheduled to start building this year. When completed, this hybrid project’s estimated annual output will be 454 GWh, which will suffice to cover the annual energy consumption of approximately 22,700 typical single-family houses.