Oona Aaltonen
•
14.2.2023 
Background
Northern Ostrobothnia is the leading wind power production region in Finland with approx. 40% share of the national wind power capacity. The aforementioned unique conditions of the region create an excellent foundation for the development of renewable energy sources and the promotion of the green transition. However, Northern Ostrobothnia’s regional economic and employment impacts of wind power have remained rather low in the area, and in addition, there is downward pressure on the profitability of investments and the amount of construction of wind power in the long term. The objective of the project with Spring Advisor was to identify the direct regional economic and employment impacts of wind power in the region as well as to create measures to increase the regional influence and the attractiveness of wind power construction.
Project
During the project, Spring Advisor modeled the overall economic effects of wind power at different stages of a wind farm’s life cycle. Of the direct overall economic effects of wind power, only about 20% were identified to remain in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia. Consequently, Spring Advisor gave recommendations on measures to increase regional influence and developed a road map for the promotion of the measures. In addition, during the project a vision of the future wind power cluster in the Northern Ostrobothnia region was created, where other parties are connected to the wind power sector, such as other emission-free energy systems.
The project report created by Spring Advisor can be found below (in Finnish). The report provides up-to-date information on the economic effects of wind power for investors, project developers, service providers, industry representatives and many others interested in the topics of renewable energy and the green transition.
