Åland is an autonomous, demilitarised region of Finland with a physically resilient energy security profile by island standards. The main island is supplied by two main cables (one to Sweden, one to Finland), each individually capable of meeting full island demand, alongside an older reserve cable to Finland, two gas turbines for standalone operation, and a growing battery base including a 2 MW unit at the Söderby solar park commissioned in 2026 with grid restart capability. Electricity generation has more than tripled over the past decade as onshore wind has scaled up. The reserve route from Sweden has automatically taken over during outages on the Finnish cable, and vice versa. The system works.
Key challenges
Cable concentration in a contested basin. The Baltic Sea is now established as a target environment. Åland’s main supply routes run through this basin, and the loss of both main cables simultaneously, whether through coincident technical failure or deliberate disruption, would leave Åland reliant on the older reserve cable and on the gas turbine and battery base. Standalone operation is technically possible but is not designed for sustained reliance.