Overview of investment

Loimua delivers district heating, electricity and natural gas to around 85,000 end users in homes, commercial properties and public sector buildings across Finland. Founded in 1995 Loimua has become the second largest private supplier of District Heating (DH) owning and operating 640MW of heat production capacity across 500 kilometres.

Public benefits:

  • Reducing fuel poverty
  • Lowering emissions
  • Recycling waste
  • Energy transition
  • Promoting energy efficiency
Sector
Utilities
Investment date
July 2019
Fund
DIF V
DIF ownership stake
37.5%

640MW

Production capacity per year

85,000 approx

Residents with access to heating

83%

Share of biofuel (2020)

ESG impacts

Providing energy-efficient heating, in one of Europe’s coldest climates, is a critical challenge for the district heating sector in Finland, but one that Loimua is rising to.

  • Loimua recently launched a climate neutrality strategy to emphasise the team’s commitment to building district heating systems compatible with a net zero global economy by 2050.
  • Loimua now monitors greenhouse gas emissions across all its 16 DH networks, and 74% of these assets have an energy saving initiative in place such as tracking energy use in buildings. This gives owners the information they need to set and achieve efficiency goals. As of 2020, 60% of the assets actively monitor environmental KPI’s.
  • Environmental responsibility and improving resilience to natural hazards risk exposure is embedded into the everyday operations across Loimua’s networks, and for that reason, all the assets’ ashes – which represent 1,000 tons of otherwise waste – are transformed to be used as fertilizers or inert materials for construction purposes.
  • Loimua is also working to increase the share of biofuels in its DH production, including commissioning a new bio-boiler (instead of natural gas and fuel) at the Vanaja Power Plant. The ambition is for majority of all production across the asset to come from biomass in future.
  • The company also aims to have a positive impact on its people and local communities and has introduced a new diversity policy in 2020.

“Around half a city’s energy consumption is typically for heating and cooling and Loimua is making sustainable district heating happen, warming the homes and offices of people across Finland.”

Tom Goossens,
DIF Capital Partners, Deputy Head of Infrastructure (TDF)