Feasibility tests continue for planned inland wind power station

Weather vanes record information at Juva in South Savo

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By Leena Härkönen
     
      The wind whistles through the wires that support a mast on the top of a high hill. The location is in Juva in South Savo, 197 metres above sea level, and wind gauges are whirring furiously.
      At the foot of the mast stand two optimistic men, Juha Lohjala, director of development at the regional electric utility Suur-Savon Sähkö and local organic farmer Matti Paunonen.
      Along with two other local farmers, Paunonen holds shares in the company Saimaan Woima, which plans to build South Finland’s first inland wind power station on Loukeenvuori. The feasibility of the project is now being tested by measuring wind speeds and directions with the help of a 51-metre mast.
     
The initiative for the construction of the wind power station came from Paunonen and Anssi Laamanen and from Nils Grotenfelt, the owner of the Vehmas Manor, who also serves as the Chairman of the board of Saimaan Woima.
      Grotenfelt has learned about inland wind generators in Sweden, where many farmers have set them up on their land. Those behind the Juva project hope to set up a completely self-sufficient farm.
      “We burn rapeseed oil in our grain driers, and we have wood chip heating. We started to think where we might get electricity from.”
      They contacted the local electric utility, and in the summer, the new company Saimaan Woima was set up. Suur-Savon Sähkö owns a third of the SW’s shares.
      Saimaan Woima bought the top of the hill from the aviation authority Finavia, which had previously had an aviation navigation beacon there. The area was already landscaped, and it had a road. The mast rose in late July. The measurements will take a year, and initial results are expected already after six months.
     
The measuring mast will be raised to 100 metres in the winter, which is expected to be the height of the hub of a possible wind generator. There is room on top of the hill for between one and three windmills. The most likely number will be two.
      “Inland wind energy is in its beginning stages in Finland, even though it is easier to build inland than out at sea”, Grotenfelt says. He calculates that the investment will be no more than EUR 1.5 million per built megawatt of generating capacity. Plans are to set up generators of between one and three megawatts.
      “The wind blows steadier on land than at sea”, Grotenfelt says.
     
The Finnish Meteorological Institute is drawing up a wind atlas, which will show the windy areas in Finland on a map. In Sweden, such a survey led to a situation in which most new wind power construction has moved inland.
      The people in South Savo support the government’s aim to increase the proportion of renewable energy to 38 per cent of the energy mix by 2020. The proportion slated for wind energy is to be 2,000 megawatts, up from today’s 144.
      To encourage this development, producers are to be given generous compensation for electricity that they feed into the national grid.
     
The regional electric utility Suur-Savon Sähkö was happy to join the project, Lohjala notes. The company had investigated the possibility of building a wind generator on another nearby hilltop - Haukivuori.
      “At that time, equipment for inland wind generators was not sufficiently developed for use at prevailing wind speeds.”
      An output of six megawatts is sufficient for powering between 600 and 1,000 homes that are heated with electricity. The power produced at Loukeenvuori would be sold to consumers outside Juva as well.
     
Opponents of wind power projects generally object to noise and the shadows cast by the rotors.
      “In this area, there is swamp and forest, and the northern side is uninhabited”, Lohjala explains. Local residents have been informed about the project.
      “The farmers were eager to cut down trees and repair the road. The involvement of large landowners in the project meant that one threshold was overcome.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 10.9.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Energy companies put forward ambitious offshore wind power plans (18.6.2008)
  Metsähallitus plans to charge owners of wind generators rent for using public land (15.5.2008)
  Major boom in wind power projects (30.8.2008)

LEENA HÄRKÖNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
leena.harkonen@hs.fi