Press release 9 June 2020
QHeat has completed its first financing round, securing a funding of EUR 2.5 million, which the company will use to further develop its technology focused on medium-deep geothermal energy. Auris Energiaratkaisut Oy and an investor group led by Valve Ventures Oy participated in the financing round.
Quantitative Heat Oy (“QHeat”), the company behind Finland’s first operational geothermal heating plant,
has successfully completed its first financing round. Auris Energiaratkaisut Oy (“AER”) and an investor group led by Valve Ventures Oy (“Valve”) participated in the financing round.
Before the financing round, QHeat was entirely owned by its founders Miska Eriksson, Rami Niemi and Mikael Maksimow. In QHeat’s new Board of Directors, Mika Paloranta will represent AER and Eerik Paasikivi will represent Valve and the investor group.
Finland’s first deep geothermal well, implemented by QHeat, was taken into use in January 2020 in Koskelo, Espoo. Last week, Vantaa Energy announced that it will build a geothermal heating plant in Varisto, Vantaa, utilizing QHeat’s solution. The plant’s emission-free heat is directed to Vantaa’s district heating network and sold to customers interested in geothermal heat.
“We are proud to get a respected energy services provider join us in accelerating QHeat’s growth. The
completed financing round will help us significantly in our mission to speed up the transition towards clean energy. With the financing, we will further expedite the development of our technology based on genuinely carbon-free geothermal energy. Vantaa Energy’s recent decision to invest in a geothermal heating plant shows that the transition towards clean energy production is already underway,” says Miska Eriksson, QHeat’s CEO.
“We are excited about the opportunity to join the transformation taking place in the Finnish heating market, enabled by medium-deep geothermal energy. Our customers will benefit significantly from the solutions QHeat and AER together have enabled,” says Mika Paloranta, CEO of AER and Suomen Kaasuenergia, and from now on also the Chair of the Board of Directors at QHeat.
QHeat’s deep geothermal heating solution produces nearly emission-free energy
At the moment, approximately one fifth of Finland’s carbon emissions come from heating. According to
QHeat’s calculations, scaling deep geothermal heating solutions to even five percent of Finland’s real estate stock would reduce half a million metric tonnes of carbon emissions per year, equivalent of approximately four percent of Finland’s emission targets.
QHeat’s technology is based on approximately 2,000-meter-deep geothermal wells. The nearly emission-free solution is also a production method that mitigates climate change, and it is suitable especially to large property complexes. With medium-deep geothermal heating, the emissions from the heating of a property can be reduced by up to 95 percent compared to fossil fuels. QHeat’s geothermal wells can also be used for energy storage, which enables adjusting to seasonal fluctuation in energy demand.
“With medium-deep geothermal heat, we can make good use of the warm summer months, because
during the summer, we can store waste energy from cooling into the ground and then use it for heating in the winter. Medium-deep geothermal energy has significant export potential as a solution that can mitigate climate change by reducing the emissions from heating and cooling on a global scale,” says Miska Eriksson.