Finland powers through green transition

Lake Vesijärvi, located around 100 kilometres north of Helsinki, wasn’t always the pristine Finnish lake it is today. Indeed, it faced ecological collapse by the 1970s, heavily polluted by industrial waste and untreated sewage.

Rather than rest on its laurels, the adjacent city of Lahti was spurred into action, leading an ambitious restoration project that combined scientific innovation, upgraded wastewater treatment and community involvement.

By the 1990s, the lake was transformed, with clear waters and thriving biodiversity returning. The success of the project eventually inspired Lahti’s recognition as the European Green Capital in 2021, and today the lake area is utilised by the community for activities including swimming, fishing and boating, with numerous passenger ferries plying the waterway to connect Finnish cities and towns.

Indeed, after the effort spent cleaning the lake, locals such as Päijän Boats are ensuring that environmental impact of water transport going forward is minimal. The company established itself as a manufacturer of row boats and has since pivoted to include row boats that can also be fitted with electric motors to meet growing customer demand.

“Most of [our customers] already have an electric motor in the front or back. They buy a rowing boat for fitness, but they want versatility,” said CEO Antti Mäkelä.

Old technology re-imagined

The growing fascination with alternative water transport is not confined to the area surrounding lake Vesijärvi. Down in the capital region, Q-Yachts commenced developing high-end electric boat e-boats in 2018 and the City of Helsinki recently piloted the use of autonomous on-demand e-boats to transport passengers around the Helsinki archipelago. Further along the coast, FinFerries’ hybrid electric ferry Elektra began transporting passengers and cars already back in June 2017.

Other Finnish innovations in contemporary water transport are seen on a much larger scale in the shipping industry. Norsepower's rotor sails are a modern interpretation of the Flettner rotor, a vertical cylinder that spins and generates thrust as wind blows across it. The electricity-powered sails reduce fuel consumption, climate emissions and operating costs effectively by reducing the burden on the main propulsion system.

“Our goal is simple – to cut the emissions of large ships by saving fuel with our proven Norsepower Rotor Sails,” said Tuomas Riski, CEO of Norsepower.

“With over 30 000 vessels globally that can benefit from our product, our scale-up ambitions are bold but realistic. It’s a win-win for everyone, including the planet,” he added.

To meet demand, the company recently opened a new production facility in China with an initial annual output of 50 sails, but plans are afoot to double it by 2027.

“Expanding our capacity is the only way to respond to our customers’ needs, which have dramatically increased recently across all ship types and under all flags,” stated Antti Aarpo, chief production officer at Norsepower.

Electrifying transport

Finnish green mobility innovations are also in abundance on dry land. Virta’s end-to-end charging platform for electric vehicles, for example, has enabled more than 1 000 private and public organisations in various sectors – from energy, retail and automotive to accommodation and real estate – to set up, operate and scale their charging operations.

After the company closed an 85-million-euro funding round in 2023, Virta is “ready to take the global lead in making EVs an integral part of energy flexibility markets,” according to CEO Jussi Palola.

The Helsinki-based company has accordingly ramped up its international developments in recent times, including in Sweden, Germany, and Southeast Asia. Virta is also looking to consolidate its presence in key English-speaking markets, and announced late last year an official membership in ChargeUK, a leading industry association promoting the development of convenient and affordable charging infrastructure in the UK.

“As a pioneer in Charge Point Management Systems (CPMS) and a trusted provider of charging solutions, we see ChargeUK’s work as perfectly aligned with our strategic goals in this vital market," said Stuart Tolley, GEO director of UK & Ireland at Virta.

Piloting sustainable aviation fuel

On area of transport that poses a particular threat to a greener future for mobility is found in the tourism industry. Globally, by July 2024 international tourist arrivals reached 96 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Travel companies are expecting a 24 per cent increase in the number of trips planned for the upcoming year compared to 2024. Whilst the rise of electric-powered mobility, such as the water transport solutions mentioned earlier will help mitigate some of this on a smaller scale, transport to and from destinations remains a significant polluter.

The market for sustainable aviation fuel is thus predicted to grow from around two billion euros in 2030 to over 60 billion euros by 2030, in part due to increasingly ambitious blending mandates. The EU has prescribed that, by the midway point of the century, at least 70 per cent of aviation fuels at airports across its 27 member states must be produced sustainably and half of this produced synthetically.

Meeting this need, the Finnish company Liquid Sun raised nearly four million euros to build a test facility for producing sustainable aviation fuel in a 66-square-metre shipping container. The facility will convert water and carbon dioxide into synthetic sustainable aviation fuel using low-temperature electrolysis technology.

Samuel Thesleff, board chairperson at Liquid Sun, argued that the popularity of the round in what remains a challenging market environment shows that the company has the potential to become a serious player in synthetic fuels.

“Now, the real work begins as we start scaling up the production of [synthetic sustainable aviation fuel] to an industrial scale,” he stated.