Helsinki seeks best urban heating solution via int'l competition
Published : 28 Feb 2020, 00:16
Updated : 28 Feb 2020, 00:23
The city of Helsinki on Thursday announced an international competition to seek the best solution to its conversion to sustainable urban heating, reported news agency Helsinki.
Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori invited innovators worldwide to use Helsinki as a test bed for sustainable urban heating.
The final winner of the competition named as "Helsinki Energy Challenge" would get a million Euros as reward.
The mayor said the competition could even lead to a revolutionary breakthrough for a more sustainable city life.
Even though Helsinki has already pledged to be carbon-neutral by 2035, over half of the city's heat is still produced through burning coal. And Finnish law that took effect in 2019 bans the burning of coal for making electricity or heat from 2029.
However, the city has not taken decisions on the ways to replace coal burning.
Helsinki has declared that it will not rely on biomass-fired heating, but will seek for a fossil-free and sustainable heating solution.
Helsinki is committed to sharing solutions and know-how gathered from the challenge. The capital city also announced that the cities such as Toronto, Vancouver of Canada, Amsterdam of the Netherlands and Leeds of Britain as well as several international organizations support the initiative and will make use of the results of the contest.