Finnish Climate Fund invests in turbine company

An Aurelia A400 gas turbine system, which can operate on hydrogen, biogas and other non-standard fuels.

The Finnish Climate Fund, a Finnish state-owned company focusing on combating climate change, boosting low-carbon industry and promoting digitalization, has granted a capital loan of €5 million to Aurelia Turbines.

Headquartered in Lappeenranta, Finland, Aurelia Turbines produces small gas turbines designed to use hydrogen, biogas and synthetic gas as well as other renewable and non-standard fuels.

“All our financing decisions are based on impact through our financing criteria, including emissions reduction potential,” said Climate Fund CEO Paula Laine. “For the first time, our financing now includes a separate sustainability incentive that affects the terms of the loan with which we want to encourage Aurelia Turbines to further increase the share of hydrogen and other emissions-reducing solutions in its business.”

Matti Malkamäki, CEO of Aurelia Turbines, said Aurelia’s products enable a flexible transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon solutions. ‘A customer can buy a turbine from us today and run it on natural gas or biogas, for example,” he said. “With very few modifications, the same turbine can also use hydrogen as a fuel when hydrogen will be available for the customer.

“Our technology acts as a bridge between today and tomorrow. The Climate Fund will enable us to build this bridge faster.”

The Aurelia A400 turbine is designed for small- and medium-sized industrial processes, such as small-scale combined heat and power (CHP) generation in decentralized grids across the world. The company said its400 kWe turbines may be up to 20% more energy efficient than other microturbines of the same size currently on the market and all Aurelia A400 variants have been developed to deliver low emissions.

“The goal is to meet the demand for cleaner and more flexible power generation for the future,” Malkamäki said. “Producing electricity, heat and, in some cases, cooling locally to the user ensures reliability and minimizes losses during transmission and conversion.”