“UPM is looking to develop a number of areas that could be suitable for wind power production on our land, and we have now found the right development partner. Element Power will bring world class wind development expertise to the joint venture,” says Matti Oksanen, director, UPM Energy, New Energy Ventures.

The aim of the joint venture is to develop the best suitable land areas owned by UPM to be ready for wind power production. UPM owns approximately 850,000 ha of land in Finland.

The goal of the Finnish climate and energy strategy is to use wind power to produce around 6% of the total electricity consumed by 2020. The production target is 6 TWh, which would require a total capacity of around 2,500 MW. This is the equivalent of approximately 900 turbines. At the end of 2012, almost 300 MW of wind power capacity had been installed in Finland.