Located in North Karelia (Finland), with a heating season lasting for about 9 months and surrounded by great supplies of wood, the city of Eno is a good example of a partnership between public authority and community, providing renewable heat to public buildings, managed by a local energy cooperative.
The energy cooperative manages three heating plants using waste woodchip from local forestry activities. The heating plants supply a number of municipal buildings including primary and secondary schools, health centres and community centres through three networks with a total of 10 km of pipes (Eno Energy Cooperative, 2014).
Benefits of the system include:
- Almost all the capital investment stays within the municipality
- Positive effects on the areas’ local forestry and landscape
- Positive effects on employment
- Local energy security
- Renewable fuel, approx. 5,000 tCO2 saved per year compared to previous system
- The ashes from the woodchip and its nutrients can be returned back to the forest to improve the soil
Although the energy cooperative is independent from the municipality, the development was supported by them. At the beginning, government and local organisations provided funding of the project. Good communication between Eno Energy Cooperative, local authorities and experts was also of vital importance for the project to be successful (Convoco, 2010).