Finland's total energy consumption falls by 4% in 2008

Finland's total energy consumption fell by 4 percent in 2008, bringing 13 percent decrease of carbon dioxide emissions from the production and use of energy, said Statistics Finland in a report on Monday.

According to the report, the total consumption of energy in Finland amounted to 1.42 terajoules (TJ) in 2008, which was 4.2 percent less than in 2007. And the consumption of electricity totaled 87.2 terawatt hours (TWh), which was 3.5 percent less than in the previous year. The reduction mainly resulted from the contraction of industrial output due to the downturn of economy and less requirements of heating because of mild weather.

According to the agency, the consumption of coal decreased most in 2008 in Finland by 26 percent and the consumption of peat also diminished by over 20 percent. Meanwhile, the very favorable water situation in 2008 increased the production of hydro power in Finland to 17 TWh, which was 21 percent more than in previous year and represents 23 percent of total electricity production in the country.

In addition to that, the production of wind power also reached a record level and increased by 38 percent due to new wind power stations. The share of renewable energy thus rose by nearly three percentage points and amounted to 28 percent of total energy consumption in 2008.

As a result of the decline in use of fossil fuels and peat as well as the replacement of coal condensate power with hydro power in the production of electricity, carbon dioxide emissions from the production and use of energy diminished by a total of 13 percent amounting 53.5 million tons in 2008.

Source: Xinhua