Finnish state-owned energy company Fortum has commenced operations of two large-scale heat pump plants.
The plants are located in Kolabacken, within the Kirkkonummi municipality, and Hepokorpi, Espoo municipality, both within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area of southern Finland.
The two plants currently produce district heating via large industrial heat pumps, using ambient air as a heat source, and electric boilers.
Details on Fortum’s website says the two plants encompass 40 air-to-water heat pumps, 72 water-to-water heat pumps, producing up to 180 MW of district heating, 200 MW of electric boiler capacity and 800 MWh of thermal storage.
Fortum explains that heat production will increase significantly once the plants begin to utilize excess heat from Microsoft‘s two data centers located on the Kolabacken and Hepokorpi industrial sites, following an agreement between the two companies to implement an excess heat off-taker solution.
