Telenor has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to procure wind energy in Finland.
The telco has signed a 10-year PPA with energy firm Statkraft to procure the output of a new wind farm to be built in Finland.
The agreement will cover around 80 percent of Telenor’s Finnish subsidiary DNA.
The Palokangas wind farm – consisting of 12 turbines in the Ostrobothnia region – is owned by Finnish investment firm Exilion Tuuli and is due to start operations in late 2024. DNA will procure around 85GWh annually.
“Telenor wants to support the construction of new renewable power plants in the markets we operate, and this agreement provides a solid contribution to the decarbonization of the electricity supply, as well as new capacity to hedge against volatile energy prices,” said Jannicke Hilland, EVP for Telenor infrastructure at Telenor Group.
Telenor has previously signed similar agreements for its Norwegian and Danish operations.
“With this agreement, we support DNA in securing their energy needs as well as achieving their climate targets based on renewable energy from a new wind farm under development in Finland. It illustrates Statkraft’s role in the market where we match the needs of power producers and consumers to find profitable, risk-reducing, and sustainable solutions,” said Arne Wist, VP Nordic origination at Statkraft.
2022 saw Telenor sign a 10-year solar deal with Better Energy in Denmark alongside Telia, and another decade-long agreement with Hydro Energi AS to produce wind energy from the Stor-Skälsjön wind park in Sweden to power its Norwegian operations.
Jaakko Happo, DNA's director of finance and administration, added: "Our industry offers a lot of good services to help curb climate change, but at the same time electricity is an essential part of the production of services. The development of technology has already reduced the relative electricity consumption of data transfer, i.e. electricity consumption per transferred kilobyte, but as digitization progresses, more and more electricity is still needed. Clean energy is therefore a very important part our climate work.”
Telenor acquired DNA in 2020. Officially founded in 2001, DNA can trace its roots back to the Suomen 3P mobile phone operations division of the Finnet group of telephone cooperatives, which was founded in 1921.
Statkraft has previously signed PPAs with Fastweb, Microsoft, and Deutsche Telekom.
