Despite Finland's good wind resources, harnessing energy from wind started later in Finland than in many other countries. A guaranteed feed-in-tariff was introduced in March 2011, which has given new wind energy projects the necessary financial security to move forward. The FIT was set at a higher rate of EUR 105,3/MWh until the end of 2015 to speed up development of wind in Finland and then reduced to the current level of EUR 83,50/MWh.
Although support for wind energy has been criticized in Finland due to low power prices there is strong public acceptance for wind power. The current FIT will end soon and wind farms benefiting from it have to be built by 1 November 2017. A new tariff is currently being discussed but no details are available yet. The Finnish Wind Power Association supports the idea of a Contract for Difference or a similar mechanism.
Finland passed the 1000 megawatt milestone at the end of 2015. Today about 2.5-3% of the country’s electricity consumption is covered by wind power. The role of offshore wind has been rather insignificant until now, a 20MW demonstration project has been approved by the Ministry of Finance and the Economy and, a decision to invest in a 10 turbine offshore farm is expected to be announced in the near future.