Gasum Targets 50 Nordic Filling Stations
Finland's main gas utility Gasum said September 7 it is investing in the construction of some 50 gas filling stations for heavy-duty vehicles in Finland, Sweden and Norway by the beginning of the 2020s.
The undisclosed investment, hinted at last month, will multiply the size of the Nordic heavy-duty vehicle gas filling station network, it said, thus enabling considerable emission cuts in the region.
Use of gas as a heavy-duty road vehicle fuel is a strategic focus for Gasum, and the company says that in the next few years its gas filling station network serving trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles will become several times larger than it is today. New filling stations will be located at key transport nodes as regards road haulage, and enable significant increases in the use of LNG and bio-LNG, thus resulting in significant cuts in carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate and noise emissions from transport.
”We’re on our way towards a carbon-neutral society and it’s now time to accelerate the pace. Gas plays an indisputably important role in this transition,” said Gasum CEO Johanna Lamminen, citing how in early 2018, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency granted Gasum an investment subsidy for the expansion of its filling station network as part of the Climate Leap ('Klimatklivet') programme.
A Gasum spokesperson said it had not published the total investment cost. She added that Gasum has received grants for 16 stations in Sweden from Klimatlivet, but as yet did not know about other possible grants from other national governments and the EU: "We currently have four LNG filling stations in Finland and we shall build the network of around 50 stations by the beginning of 2020s."
Delivery and heavy-duty road vehicles are currently responsible for more than a quarter of road transport emissions in the EU, Gasum says, adding that together with new gas vehicle models, the expanding gas filling station network will create the right conditions for road fuel gas market growth and emission cuts.
Gasum has already helped develop the market for LNG as a marine bunker fuel in Scandinavia and northern Europe, through its 70%-owned subsidiary Skangas.