FINLAND'S BIOGAS FUTURE HEATS UP

UNCLAS HELSINKI 000751 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE PASS FOR OES/EFENDLEY WHITE HOUSE FOR CEQ/DBANKS EPA FOR PGUNNING E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG TRGY SENV EAGR PINR FI SUBJECT: FINLAND'S BIOGAS FUTURE HEATS UP REF: A. HELSINKI 00131 ¶B. HELSINKI 00173 ¶C. HELSINKI 00580 ¶1. (U) On October 25, Aimo Aalto and Nina Broadstreet from the Finnish Ministry for Trade and Industry briefed Econoff on Finland's strategy to increase support for domestic production of energy from biogas/methane. Following Minister Mauri Pekkarinen,s two-day fact finding mission to Germany in July to examine German use of biogas and other renewable energy resources, Finland is quickly ramping up efforts to support domestic methane/biogas production by introducing a national "feed-in tariff" (a fixed guaranteed price energy companies must pay to biogas producers) for biogas plants under 20 megawatts. Working under a tight timetable, the GOF working group, chaired by Aalto, will present Minister Pekkarinen with a recommended plan of action, including pricing and timetables, by the end of October. If approved, this plan will be crafted into legislation that will ideally take effect in late 2008 or early 2009. Recognizing Finland has limited biogas resources, Broadstreet still believes Finland will increase energy production from biogas to at least 100 MW in the next five years. GOF officials said the transportation sector holds the most promise for efficiently using biogas; however, they recognize that market conditions are not right at this time for further, wide scale transportation use of biogas. Lacking significant sources of biogas close to populated areas, further transportation of biogas to cities is not a viable alternative for Finland. ¶2. (SBU) Comment: Finland is still open to joining the international Methane to Markets Partnership (M2M); however, currently Finland is focused on getting its domestic house in order before making broader international commitments. Aalto acknowledged that participation in M2M would enable a sharing of best practices at a global scale, potentially accelerating Finland's domestic biogas objectives which include increasing energy security by broadening Finland,s domestic energy production and helping Finland meet its climate change Kyoto commitments. End comment. WARE