
SOLAR
FOR FOOD
ATRIA
A large, 5.9 megawatt solar power park was built in Atria Aurinko's flagship energy project in 2018. As a flagship energy project, various solutions related to solar electricity were piloted in Atria Auringo, and it was Finland's first large-scale solar power park. The park was Finland's largest solar power implementation still in 2023, when its panel output was almost doubled with the 5.0 megawatt expansion section.
31,000
SOLAR PANELS
10.9
CAPACITY MW
43 000
SURFACE AREA M2
Solarigo, when Finland's largest solar power plant is being built
Atria Oyj is a Finnish food industry company.
The Atria Group is divided into four business areas, which are Atria Finland, Atria Scandinavia, Atria Russia and Atria Baltics. Atria's customer groups include grocery stores, Food Service customers and industry. In addition, it has a Fast Food concept business based on its own brands. Atria's roots go back to 1903, when its oldest owner cooperative was founded. Atria Oyj's shares are listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

SERVICE CONCEPT
What made the project unique in Finland was the fact that it was implemented with a new solar electricity PPA contract model and smart electricity use service concept, where the end customer is basically not required to make any investments or resources of their own. This frees up the end customer's financial resources to develop their own main business. Atria Suomi Oy buys all the produced solar electricity for the factory's use with a long-term contract.
A project company Nurmon Aurinko Oy was responsible for the project's planning, investments and the delivery of solar electricity and smart grid services during production use at Atria's Nurmo factories. No project of this size had been implemented with a similar service concept in Finland. The solar electricity contract and service concept can be fully duplicated, regionally expanded and exported to international markets.
EXPANSION OF THE SOLAR PARK IN 2022 - 2023
Due to positive experiences, Atria and Solarigo decided to expand the solar park almost twice. It was not necessary to install so many solar panels in the extension part, because the panel power had increased over the years. Unlike before, the extension used bi-facial solar panels, which also produce energy from diffuse radiation reflected on the back side of the panel, especially in spring. The extension part was built in connection with Atria's Nurmo factory, on the east side of the area.
The expansion part increased Atria Auringo's annual electricity production to approximately 9,000 MWh. With the expansion, Atria covers about 8% of its annual consumption with solar electricity.


ENERGY PEAK PROJECT
During the Atria's Sun energy project 2017-2019, Finland's first large and significant industrial-scale solar power park was installed in connection with the Nurmo factory of the food industry operator Atria Suomi Oy. In the project Finland's largest 5.9 MW solar power park was established which consisted of of 11 separate and independent power plants. After the project emission-free solar electricity replaces about 5% of the electricity needed by the factory on an annual basis.
In addition to the solar power plant, a significant size 1 MWh electricity storage was also integrated into the factory's electricity network in to improve the quality of the factory's electricity and participate in balancing the supply and demand fluctuations of the electricity system. In the project, an intelligent factory network was also built, with which the factory invested in energy-saving technology in a total of 19 different areas. An intelligent factory network improves energy efficiency and extends the service life of equipment. The project received an energy top level project grant from the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The project has been unique to us already due to its significant size and serves as an excellent example project in increasing renewable energy and improving energy efficiency in an industrial environment. The project also meets Atria's corporate responsibility goals, reducing our carbon footprint with concrete actions.
Tapani Potka
Director, Atria's order-supply chain
Atria
ATRIA IN NUMBERS
31 000
SOLAR PANELS
TOTAL QUANTITY OF SOLAR PANELS AT THE NURMO FACTORY
10.9
MEGAWATTS
SOLAR ELECTRICITY PARK
CAPACITY
43,000
SQUARE METERS