Phasing out oil heating in buildings

About this good practice

By project CLEAN

Published on 03 March 2022

Finland

Buildings account for approximately 32 % of Finland’s energy consumption. Renovating the building stock is a vital component of Finland’s transition to a carbon-free clean energy system. The long-term target of Finland is to phase out oil heating by 2030 and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the building stock by 90 % between 2020 and 2050. According to the Greenhouse gas emission reduction potential study made by the Regional Council of North Karelia as part of the CLEAN project, energy sector emissions could be reduced by renovations improving energy efficiency of buildings, replacing conventional and fossil heating methods with alternative renewable energy methods, and switching regular electricity to green electricity.

As part of the COVID recovery program, the government of Finland has designated funds for converting building heating systems from fossil-based oil heating to energy-efficient heating. Phasing out oil heating in buildings is part of Finland’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. The funding can cover in total approximately 26 000 buildings. Funding is available for residential buildings, local authorities, parishes, and associations.

Resources needed

The Finnish government has designated 28,5 million € in the 2020 budget, 9,4 million € in the 2021 budget and 65 million € in the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funded Sustainable Growth Programme in 2021 for converting building heating systems from oil heating to energy-efficient heating.

Evidence of success

In January 2022, 18 484 applicants had applied for funding to phase out oil heating and 37,6 million € had been granted. In North Karelia 190 applicants had received funding of total 737 000 € and 72 % of the applicants shift to water-air heat pumps, 13 % to ground heat pumps, 9 % to district heating, 4 % to electricity and 1 % to pellets.

Potential for learning or transfer

As heating accounts for a large scale of the total energy consumption, shifting to renewable energy in heating plays an important part in meeting the EU energy and emission targets. Changing the heating system requires a large investment, which is a challenge especially for low value buildings and low-income households. It is obvious that the EU targets cannot be reached without supporting financially the shift to cleaner energy.

The support for residential buildings is granted by the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment on a first come, first served basis. The requirement is that the building is in regular residential use and that oil heating is replaced by another heating system, which is not based on fossil fuels. The funding is 4000 € for water-air heat pumps and ground heat pumps and 2500 € for other approved heating systems. The support mechanism has been very popular and almost 20 000 applications have been received by far.