Exploring pathways for achieving 100% renewable heating and cooling in Finland
The Roundtable on Finnish Perspectives on Renewable Heating and Cooling, held on 14 April 2025, successfully brought together national stakeholders to explore pathways for achieving 100% renewable heating and cooling. The event was organised by the RHC-ETIP platform in collaboration with EGEC, and supported by consortium partners EUREC, SHE, EHP, EHPA, and WIP.
The video recording is available here, and the speakers’ presentations can be accessed here.
Moderated by Giulia Cittadini, Policy Advisor at EGEC, the roundtable fostered in-depth discussions on the unique challenges and opportunities facing Finland’s heating and cooling sector. With a focus on the country’s climate, social, and market conditions, experts shared insights on the key technologies and strategies needed to support a sustainable and resilient energy transition.
Leonie Kuhlmann, Policy Assistant at EGEC, opened the session with an introduction to the RHC-ETIP platform, outlining its goals, the project database, and the accelerator platform.
Agenda Highlights
• Andrej Misech, Project Manager, EUREC presented Funding Opportunities for the RHC Sector, highlighting support tools of the RHC platform such as EU level funding opportunities but also national funding opportunities.
2. Expert Presentations – Key Technologies and Innovations in Renewable Heating and Cooling: Finnish Perspectives
• Teppo Arola, Chief Expert in Geoenergy, Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) had a presentation on The Role of Geothermal Energy in District Heating and Cooling in Finland. He highlighted the need forbetter planning to integrate geothermal into district heating and cooling systems and the benefits 4th and 5th generation technologies will bring.
• Jussi Hirvonen, Executive Director, Finnish Heat Pump Association showcased The Success Story of Finland’s Heat Pump Market. He stressed the need for new business models but generally pictured a great future ahead where oil burners can be converted and geothermal heat pumps can take over the heating and cooling demand of big buildings such as shopping centers.
• Hannes Tuohiniitty, Sector Manager, The Bioenergy Association of Finland talked about The Role of Bioenergy. This presentation highlighted the important part of bioenergy in the Finnish renewable energy share and Hannes put emphasis on the future role of biomass for the district heating sector.
3. Stakeholder Presentation
• Rami Niemi, Founder & CTO, QHeat presented Coaxial Reversible Medium-Deep Geothermal Heat Well Technology: A Sustainable Heating Solution. Rami explained the huge market opportunity for geothermal heat pumps, especially to electrify thermal energy. He presented the company’s owns approach to deep drilling which is particularly innovative. Funding was mentioned as the biggest challenge to expand the sector.
4. Q&A and Concluding Remarks
The Q&A session allowed to address questions from the audience that emphasized for example the high social acceptance of geothermal in Finland and explained research and innovation priorities for bioenergy.
Conclusions focused on the learning opportunities between different RHC technologies. It also promoted the upcoming RHC platform annual event on Collaborative Pathways to Sustainable Heating and Cooling on 7th of May 2025.
