It is once again time to highlight the most significant achievements and contributors in the field of renewable energy in Finland, as the nominees for the 2025 Energy Transition Promoter Award have been announced. The award is given to an achievement or activity that has contributed to supporting or accelerating the growth and development of renewable energy in Finland. This year’s nominees are the band Ultra Bra, the gas network company Gasgrid, LUT University and Petteri Laaksonen, the Lapinsalo wind measurement project crowdfunding initiative, and Minister Lauri Tarasti.

The nominees for the 2025 Energy Transition Promoter award represent a wide range of sectors in society, from culture to research, infrastructure to citizen participation and decision-making. The winner will be announced at the Wind Oulu seminar on February 5, 2026. The event will also feature an award for the audience favorite, which is open for voting until January 25 at https://www.energianedistaja.fi/.

This year’s jury members are Antti Herlin, Chairman of the Board of KONE Corporation, Matti Vanhanen, State Councillor, and Julia Sangervo, psychologist, researcher, and politician.

The nominees for Energy Transition Promoter of the Year 2025 are:

  • Ultra Bra – Ultra Bra’s 1999 song Ilmiöitä is remembered for its legendary line “Eikä vieläkään tuulivoimaa” (“And still no wind power”). During their 2025 stadium tour, the band highlighted the rapid growth of wind power in their song’s background graphics – the message reached approximately 82,000 listeners and made the energy transition part of Finnish popular culture.
  • Gasgrid – Gasgrid has long been involved in hydrogen pipeline and hydrogen valley projects both in Finland and abroad. They work tirelessly and enthusiastically on their own projects, but also nationally, promoting Finland as a superpower in renewable, clean energy and the hydrogen economy.
  • LUT University and Petteri Laaksonen – Petteri Laaksonen, Research Director at LUT University, has highlighted the potential of Eastern Finland through wind power and decentralized energy production.  Laaksonen has been proactive in the ResilEast program, which combines the green transition and national defense by utilizing wind farms and their infrastructure as enablers for the placement of new sensor systems.
  • Crowdfunding for the Lapinsalo wind measurement project – Valorem, in collaboration with Invesdor, gave locals the opportunity to invest in crowdfunding to finance the Lapinsalo wind measurement campaign. Investors will receive a 10% return on their investment over a three-year period. The project involved local people in a renewable energy project by giving them the opportunity to participate in the project without direct land ownership.
  • Minister Lauri Tarasti – In the early part of the last decade, Lauri Tarasti served as an investigator in a project that mapped out the administrative obstacles to wind power construction. Many of Tarasti’s proposals were implemented, and it is fair to say that they helped lay a solid foundation for the rapid growth of wind power about ten years later.

Read more about the award and meet the 2025 finalists and jury at https://www.energianedistaja.fi/.

Source: Suomen uusiutuvat ry – Renewables Finland