Up to 14 new gas filling stations – Gasum receives EU support at €2.9 million for construction of new stations

The EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for transport, energy and digital infrastructure projects has granted Gasum €2.9 million for the construction of new gas filling stations. With the support, Gasum will continue its determined efforts to implement new filling station projects and expand the Nordic station network.

“The support granted enables us to even better develop the gas infrastructure to meet the growing demand. The huge growth in demand for gas-fueled vehicles over the past couple of years among consumer as well as business customers has proven that there is a need for more stations. The transport use of biogas also facilitates the achievement of Finland’s ambitious environmental targets,” says Jussi Vainikka, Business Development Manager, Biogas, from Gasum.

On December 12, the Transport Climate Policy working group under the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications published its final report on actions for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions over the longer term. The working group highlighted biogas as a significant element of the solution for greenhouse gas emissions cuts. According to the working group, the gas distribution infrastructure should also match customer requirements.

The support now granted covers the construction of up to 14 gas filling stations in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) area in Finland. The support will have an impact on issues such as the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in heavy-duty transport.

The stations to be built include both new liquefied natural gas and biogas filling stations for heavy-duty vehicles and compressed natural gas and biogas filling stations for cars, delivery vehicles and waste management vehicles. Gasum has already implemented filling stations in Salo and Vantaa in accordance with its support application. Both of the completed filling stations are key components of the project entity and the granted support package.

The filling stations for heavy-duty vehicles to be opened in Finland are part of Gasum’s wider network of filling stations for heavy-duty transport. The company is planning to construct a total of around 50 stations in Finland, Sweden and Norway in the next few years. The new filling stations will be located at key transport nodes as regards logistics operations, and they will enable significant increases in the use of liquefied natural gas and biogas in heavy-duty transport.

Filling station network expansion responding to growing demand

Gasum has been taking clear action to build the Nordic gas market. Two LNG import terminals have been constructed in Finland and at the same time Gasum has strengthened its LNG supply chain substantially in the Nordic countries. Gasum’s first LNG filling stations are located in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Turku and Vantaa, Finland.

The demand for cleaner transport solutions is increasing rapidly also for cars and in sectors including municipal deliveries and transport. New gas vehicle models in various vehicle categories and the expanding filling station network create excellent potential for growth in the road fuel gas market. Over the past couple of years, the number of gas-fueled vehicles registered in Finland has more than doubled: the number of gas vehicles in use before 2017 was just under 2,000, while the current figure already exceeds 6,000.

To reach the Transport Climate Policy working group's target set for 2045, the number of gas-fueled cars needs to be increased significantly in Finland. Their number on Finland’s roads should be around 130,000 in 2030 and around 250,000 in 2045. The target set for heavy-duty vehicles is around 6,000 vehicles in 2030 and as many as 22,000 in 2045 and target set for gas-fueled vans is 14,000 and 41,000, respectively.

Co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility the European Unioni