Finland - a wind energy paradise

The seven-member Prokon team in Finland is currently developing wind farms with a total capacity of around 360 MW, which are set to be sold and built in the next five years. The individual parks are significantly larger than those typically found in Germany, often delivering 100 MW or more. Unlike in Germany, there is no public funding available in this Scandinavian country. "Therefore, we are focusing primarily on planning and project development," says Christoph Abraham.

Due to the fact that the large wind farms in Finland require much higher investments than a typical German wind farm and because there are no state feed-in tariffs, Prokon needs to provide more equity capital for each project. For these reasons, a new owner is quickly being sought for the planned wind parks, with Prokon willing to retain a 19.9% stake in the projects.

Just now, still in the planning stage, the park in Mutkalampi north of Vaasa has been sold. It is supposed to have a capacity of 404 MW. This wind farm already has long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) in place, including with Google. The search engine giant also buys the electricity generated by the Hedet wind farm (81 MW) which went online in 2020. Sales negotiations are already underway for the upcoming Storbötet park (96 MW capacity) which is still in the planning phase.

Marko Kristola, who has been working in the wind energy industry for over 20 years, would like to eventually be involved not only in the planning and development but also in the operation of wind turbines at Prokon in Finland.

Marko enjoys working for Prokon. "It's a well-organized company," he praises, though with a slight caveat: "It might be a tad old-fashioned at times." The Finns are ahead of us in terms of digitisation. Marko Kristola has visited the Itzehoer Prokon headquarters before, and he likes it here: "I always felt at home in Germany."