Helsinki launches $1.1M global competition for city’s heating challenge

In Finland, in a drastic turn to eliminate coal as the main source of district heating, the City of Helsinki kicked off the Helsinki Energy Challenge – a global $1.1 million (€1 million) competition to find the future of urban heating. Ideas presented must not rely on fossil fuel or biomass fired heating as the city aims to reach carbon-neutral by 2035 and coal is banned from energy production in Finland from 2029.

The goal of the challenge is to find solutions that can be implemented in Helsinki by 2029 and that potentially could contribute to decarbonising city heating around the world. The City of Helsinki is committed to openly sharing the solutions and know-how gathered from the challenge.

The winning proposal could just as well include technological and business model innovations, as it could be a solution requiring system-level transformation. Proposed solutions will be evaluated based on climate impact, impact on natural resources, cost, implementation schedule, implementation feasibility, reliability and security of supply, and capacity.

The Helsinki Energy Challenge is a challenge competition, open globally to anyone who can propose a sustainable heating solution for Helsinki – consortiums, start-ups, larger and more established companies, research institutions, universities, research groups and individual experts. The only requirement is that participants should join the competition as a team.

The challenge is open for submissions from February 27, 2020 until May 31, 2020. By early July, finalists will be invited to a co-creation phase, which includes a 3-day boot camp, where they are provided support to develop their proposals, before presenting them to an international jury of experts who will name the winner(s). The winning solution(s) will be presented in November and awarded with one million euros.

Read more about Helsinki Energy Challenge here.