Environmental impacts

In the future, the energy system – and Fortum’s portfolio – will be based on renewable energy, increasingly clean gas (e.g., hydrogen) and nuclear power. By improving the energy efficiency of our power and heat production, we can also reduce flue-gas emissions to the environment relative to the produced energy and decrease production costs.

Fortum’s power generation in the Nordic countries is mainly based on CO₂-free hydro and nuclear power. A minor share of Fortum’s power generation is currently based on solar and wind.

Fortum also has generation of district heating and cooling. Heat is mainly produced at energy-efficient combined heat and power (CHP) plants.

In the Russian operations, Fortum has mainly natural gas-fired generation. Fortum’s target is to end all coal-based generation by the end of 2027.

In 2022, the asset availability of Fortum’s gas-fired and coal-fired power plants was, on average, 90.3%.

Energy production and other production operations generate emissions to the environment, such as to air and water. We aim to control emissions caused by our operations and to reduce their environmental impacts by using technological solutions and cleaning technology.

Greenhouse gases that accelerate global climate change are generated primarily from the use of fossil fuels and the combustion of fossil-based waste. Flue-gas emissions causing local environmental and health effects are generated from all combustion.

We use water mainly as cooling water in our condensing power plants. Water is also a prerequisite for Fortum’s hydropower production. Our responsibility for water use is related not only to water volume and availability, but also to its quality and to the aquatic habitat. We are improving the efficiency of our own water use, and we also offer services to our customers for the treatment, analysis, purification, utilisation and increased recycling of their waste and sludge waters and other severely polluted waters.