With its carbon-neutral target of 2035, the Finnish capital of Helsinki has placed itself as being at the forefront of the global push to carbon neutrality. The largest problem for the city is the heating system, the emissions of which account for more than half of its total emissions.
Helsinki hopes to become the leader in the race towards carbon neutrality. Credit: City of Helsinki
To find the best solutions for heating the city, the Helsinki Energy Challenge was created one year ago, with the winners announced yesterday.
The competition attracted 252 proposals from 35 countries. The idea was that Helsinki would become a testing ground for future-proof heating solutions, especially for parts of the world with highly seasonal climates.
”We addressed a significant question with the challenge competition model and it generated thinking and discussions, both within the city and outside it, which may not have occurred otherwise," said Project Director of the Helsinki Energy Challenge Laura Uuttu-Deschryvere.
"The discussions in the different phases of the competition showed that there was a demand for our approach. The energy revolution and the fight against climate change require innovative and exceptional ways of finding solutions,” she added.
The four winners, chosen by an international jury, are:
- HIVE, a flexible plan, based on proven technologies and solutions, such as seawater heat pumps, electrical boilers, solar thermal fields and demand side management measures; the plan is capable of integrating new technologies if and when these emerge.
- Beyond fossils, an energy transition model based on open and technology-neutral clean heating auctions, paving up the path to carbon-neutral Helsinki in a flexible and innovation enabling way.
- Smart Salt City, a solution that melds novel thermochemical energy storage and artificial intelligence with commercially available energy technologies.
- Helsinki’s Hot Heart, a flexible system made of ten floating reservoirs filled with 10 million cubic metres of hot seawater that can receive different energy sources as input. Four of the cylindrical tanks that make up Helsinki’s Hot Heart would be enclosed with inflatable roof structures to create a new leisure attraction.
In addition to the four winning proposals, the City of Helsinki has granted a recognition award to the team “CHP Consumers to Heat Producers” for an eye-opening description of the diversity of the heating challenge and relevant stakeholders.
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