Hi! So nice that you have found yourself to my site. I'm Tuomas Vanhanen. My mission is to lead understandable and bold but balanced discussion about energy.
I live in Tampere, Finland and work for the Energy Wise Cities project - a common effort of the six largest cities in Finland. The main goal of the project is to combine solutions of energy and building sectors to find new, even more efficient ways for reducing emissions. Cities will then scale the best of those solutions.
Previously I worked in the Nordic HQ of energy technology - in the coastal pearl of a city called Vaasa. At ABB my job was to keep the business booming and to provide utilities with smart grid technology.
I love writing as it is an enjoyable way for me to express myself and to give back to the society.
Energy Ambassador
I jumped off from an airplane due to my job. Being the energy ambassador was an incredible experience. The job led me to meet CEO's and high managers, experts and proud, skilled workers of companies like Wärtsilä and ABB. All together I visited 12 companies during 12 weeks and blogged, vlogged and shouted out on the streets the learnings from this awesome summer job.
This is where it all kind of started back in the days.
I was nominated out of over 1600 candidates during multiple interviews and tests to tell the story of the city of Vaasa, where an outstanding amount of quality companies have worked together for decades and are today making one third of all energy industry exports in Finland.
Below embedded is the greeting I made in 2012 for the at the time United States' ambassador in Finland Bruce Oreck, to sum up my experiences in a few minutes. Time flies.
If not before, the Energy Ambassador job gave me the last fundamental push to the world of energy. I then went on to finish my studies in Tampere University of Technology, and applied to ABB for a Master's thesis position.
Best Thesis In Energy Economics
Apparently I did something right at the end of my academic career. My thesis, that I did for ABB in 2014, titled "The evolving requirements for smart secondary substations in three European regulatory market environments" was nominated by the World Energy Council Finland as the best in energy economics context in 2014.
Seven thesis from Finnish universities were named to the judges by their professors.
The judges were
- Professor Jorma Routti (chair), who has made an exceptional career e.g. as a professor for technical physics in Helsinki University of Technology, researcher in CERN, Director-General of DG XII Science, Research and Development of the European Commission and as an expert for the World Bank
- D.Sc. (Econ.), docent Juha Honkatukia from VATT institute for economic research
- Pekka Järvinen from Suomen Energiaekonomistit, member association of International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE)
- Stefan Wilhelms, an associate vice president for Nasdaq OMX Commodities
- Lauri Muranen, from World Energy Council Finland (secretary)
Blog
The reason that I'm active in the energy discussion is the need for well founded arguments on which direction Finland and EU should take when fighting global warming. The following graph shows the historical and estimated decline in fossil fuel use as percentage of the total energy consumption in Finland. Upmost curve is total fossil fuels, black is oil, red is coal, blue is natural gas and golden one is peat, here put together with the older fossil fuels.
This is what we are dealing with. The system will change in the coming decades and we need to be ready in advance. The content of my blog can be summed up in the following bullets.
- Get your facts straight
- Magnitudes are what matters
- The goal - better life for the people
There is need for objective discussion, argumentation and decision making. Quite often the debate focuses on wrong or irrelevant issues. What would matter the most is sometimes not seen by the eager debaters. We should focus on the main goal, common for all people on this globe - making the decisions that ensure the possibilities of good life and equal opportunities also for the generations that are to come.
DISCLAIMER
The articles in this blog are dealing with complex issues in an understandable way. Even after great precision sometimes an error might be found in an article. If this would happen, I highly appreciate feedback in the comments section or via email. Opinions can be debated, facts must be checked. Discussion is the only and best way toward our common goal.
The blog expresses my personal opinions only and is not related to my employer or any third party or other organisation.