Finnish biofuels plants left with €200 million funding hole

Finnish firm Suomen Bioetanoli is looking for substantial new funding for two new biofuels plants, following the withdrawal of a major investor on the project.

According to yle.fi, a €200 million deal with Chinese investor fell through because the Chinese financier was unable to together the funding for the project. The result is a large funding hole in the planned project to construct biofuels plants in Myllykoski and Savonlinna in Finland.

"At the time it felt too good to be true and it turned out that it was," Aate Laukkanen, chief executive of Suomen Bioetanoli, a bioethanol company based in Myllykoski in Kouvola, southeast Finland, told yle.fi.

Suomen Bioentanoli had plans to construct a straw based bioethanol plant at a former paper mill in Kouvola.

Laukkanen told yle.fi that the establishment of the bioethanol plant at the paper mill was now “highly unlikely”.

In 2014, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy awarded €30 million in energy grants to the planned bioethanol plants, in an arrangement valid until the end of July 2017. Laukkanen told yle.fi he intends to file for a continuation of the programme, although he isn’t optimistic it will be granted.