Wärtsilä heads €200M collab to develop autonomous zero-emission balancing power generation

Technology group Wärtsilä and more than 200 Finnish companies, industrial organizations, research institutes, and universities have formed a consortium to develop autonomous zero-emission balancing solutions for power generation.

Wärtsilä will lead this five-year collaboration known as the “Wide & Intelligent Sustainable Energy” (WISE) project which intends to build a scalable ecosystem and introduce secure and autonomous zero-emission balancing power generation.

Wärtsilä’s goal is to offer flexible autonomous power plant concepts with the capability to operate with 100% e-fuel, such as green hydrogen and its derivatives, by the end of 2028.

An autonomously operated balancing power generation system will be developed as part of the overall renewable-based system. New service models for the revised operating environment will also be developed.

The key enabler for this development will be to have the digital infrastructure, edge computing, energy management, and system optimization working in seamless harmony. The ecosystem will evaluate commercial and delivery considerations, along with further technology options, to create viable business models, Wärtsilä explained.

The partners are together investing €200 million in the research by 2028, of which Wärtsilä’s share is €100 million. It is expected that this investment will enable an R&D increase of some €350 million in the long term to support Wärtsilä’s vision of a 100% renewable energy future.

The project has been initiated by Business Finland, a public organization under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

“A decarbonised energy sector is inevitable in the future. The only question is when we will get there. The WISE initiative brings together industry expertise plus research and academic know-how to accelerate the trend. It gives us a unique opportunity to become the leading powerhouse for the energy transition,” said Anders Lindberg, President of Wärtsilä Energy.