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Phasing out oil heating in buildings
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About this good practice
The Finnish government provides support to convert heating of buildings from fossil oil to renewable energy as part of its COVID Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Resources needed
The support provided is 4000 € when converting oil heating to water-air heat pumps, ground heat pumps and district heating (average investment cost being 11 800 €) and 2500 € when converting oil heating to other approved fossil free heating systems (average investment cost being 6600 €).
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 had shifted 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 support mechanism has been very popular. In December 2022, the number of applications had reached over 26 000.