Fortum is planning construction of a new 20-megawatt heat pump unit at the Suomenoja power plant in Espoo to produce carbon-neutral district heating and to replace fossil fuel-based heat production. The unit is planned for commissioning in spring 2021 and will increase the share of Espoos carbon-neutral district heating production in 2022 to over 50%. Additionally, the new unit will enable an increasingly longer carbon-neutral production period during the warm months of the year.
The unit is planned to utilize the waste heat of the treated wastewater coming from Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSYs Blominmäki wastewater treatment plant, which will be completed in 2022. Additionally, it is planned to use the warm sea water as a heat source during the summer season.
With the new unit in the heat pump plant, the plants capacity will increase from 40 MW to 60 MW, and the share of the Espoo district heating networks heat production will increase from 15% to 20%. The electricity used by the heat pump plant is guarantee-of-origin-labeled CO2 free. The final investment decision to build the unit will be made during 2019. The investment is valued at about 8 million euros.