In Fortum's production unit, Vartan combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Stockholm, the share of renewable energy, thermal (seawater), bio oil and olive pits, is nearly 45%. The remaining fuel need is covered with coal and electricity. The plan is to increase the share of renewable energy in Vartan's existing units to 70% by 2015.

Fortum's plan to reduce CO2 emissions calls for an increase in CHP production. This would reduce the use of electricity-driven heat pumps in district heat production and increase the amount of renewable electricity on the Nordic power market.

Therefore, Fortum is investigating the possibility to invest in several new production units. These include, among others, a new waste-fired unit in Brista CHP that could be commissioned in 2013 and a new bio fuel-fired unit in Vartan CHP that could be commissioned in 2016. Fortum is already looking into a completely new CHP plant that could be commissioned in 2020.

Per Langer, executive vice president responsible for Fortum's Swedish operations, said: "CHP production is an environmentally sound solution regardless of the fuel used due to its almost 90% energy efficiency. However, we want to further reduce our environmental impact and plan to increase the share of renewables in our production.

"We estimate that the share of fossil fuels used in heat production in Stockholm could be reduced down to 5% in 2020 by replacing coal with bio fuels in Vartan and by adding new units to the heating system."

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.