Browsing by Author "Koskinen, Jussi"

During the last years renewable energy sources have risen to very important role. As countries in European and global scale are trying to fulfil the targets of international agreements, such as Kyoto protocol and Paris agreement. Targets in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases and increasing the use of renewable energy sources are achieved in many ways. In Finland the forest energy and wood based energy sources have become the most important way in reaching these goals. Also, reduction of fossil fuel has a significant role in ongoing change in energy production. As use of fossil fuels is aiming to be substituted by renewable alternatives. This thesis is based on published literature, articles, research reports and research results. Aim of this thesis is to pay attention to the use of forest energy in Finland and the topics closely related to this area. Use of forest energy is closely related to many important global issues. Such as climate change and prevention of climate change. Therefore, the topic is very important at the current situation, and this thesis aims to give a comprehensive overview of the forest energy as a whole, at the moment in Finland. The increment of forest energy and use of wood based energy sources still have many unclear questions and uncertainties. For example, nutrient loss in soil when biomass is harvested from the forest has still need to be paid more attention to. At the moment the use of forest energy, specially the use of wood chips, is heavily subsidized, which is causing disturbances at the markets. One of the most important features related to forest energy as a topic is the total overall climate effects of using the forest based energy. So far there have been wide range of opinions on the climate effects and carbon neutrality on the use of using forest biomass in energy sector. However, forest energy should not be seen as carbon neutral, because current climate effects diverge a lot from zero. Neutrality can be achieved in very long run but current effects are negative