Ren-Gas’s e-methane project in Tampere receives final environmental permit
The environmental permit granted by the Western and Inner Finland Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI) for Nordic Ren-Gas’s (Ren-Gas) Tampere e-methane project has gained legal force. The issued environmental permit marks a significant milestone for the Tampere e-methane project, with construction scheduled to commence in Tampere during the year 2024.
Ren-Gas is developing a significant co-production facility for renewable e-methane and district heating in Tarastenjärvi, Tampere. The project has been developed in close collaboration with Tampereen Energia since the end of 2021. The environmental permit granted by the Western and Inner Finland Regional State Administrative Agency is a significant step towards the final investment decision and the commencement of construction in 2024.
The first phase of Ren-Gas’s facility in Tampere’s Tarastenjärvi is set to produce renewable e-methane for heavy road and maritime transport. In the e-methane production process, approximately 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide captured from the Tarastenjärvi waste incineration plant’s flue gases will be used as raw material, along with green hydrogen produced from Finnish renewable electricity. The end product will yield approximately 170 GWh of renewable fuel for heavy road and maritime transport annually, as well as 180 GWh of carbon dioxide-free district heating for Tampere’s district heating system.
The processing of Ren-Gas’s Tampere e-methane project’s environmental permit proceeded rapidly. Ren-Gas submitted the environmental permit application to the Western and Inner Finland Regional State Administrative Agency in June 2023, and the permit was granted in December 2023. The project was granted priority treatment under the green transition procedure, aiming to expedite the processing of permit applications for green transition projects in the regional administrative agency. In addition to the priority procedure, the efficient processing of the environmental permit was facilitated by the comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process that preceded the permit application. This process was conducted in excellent collaboration with authorities and other stakeholders of the project.
“I am highly convinced of the tangible benefits of the green transition priority procedure for the project. Working with the authorities has been extremely smooth, and communication has been very effective. The foundation for good collaboration has been the comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment process, as well as the commitment of all parties to advancing the project on schedule. Overall, we are very satisfied with the permit process for the Tampere e-methane project, and we will leverage these experiences in our other projects across Finland,” commented Lauri Puro, Ren-Gas’s Project Development Manager.
The obtained environmental permit represents a significant milestone for the Tampere e-methane project, guiding Ren-Gas towards the investment decision and the commencement of construction in 2024. The commercial production of the project is scheduled to start in 2026. More information about the project and its progress can be found on Ren-Gas’s website at: https://ren-gas.com/projekti/tampere-2/
For more information:
Nordic Ren-Gas Oy: Head of Project Development, Lauri Puro, tel. 050 300 6043
Nordic Ren-Gas Oy is Finland’s leading hydrogen economy project developer, constructing a decentralized network for renewable e-methane production in Finland. The renewable fuels produced by Ren-Gas will reduce the use of fossil fuels in heavy road and maritime transport by approximately 250 million liters annually. Ren-Gas’s projects extensively utilize sector integration, enabling the efficient utilization of process heat as district heating and offering demand response services to the national grid company. Ren-Gas’s projects aim to cost-effectively reduce over one million tons of carbon dioxide annually in the transportation and energy sectors. The energy source for the produced e-methane is sourced from Finnish wind power. www.ren-gas.com
