Electricity consumption in Finland influenced by climate effects of energetic particle precipitation

Abstract

It is known that electricity consumption in many cold Northern countries depends greatly on prevailing outdoor temperatures especially during the winter season. On the other hand, recent research has demonstrated that solar wind driven energetic particle precipitation from space into the polar atmosphere can influence the stratospheric polar vortex and tropospheric weather patterns during winter. These changes are significant, e.g., in Northern Europe, especially in Finland. In this study we demonstrate that geomagnetic activity, as a proxy of energetic particle precipitation, significantly influences Finland’s average temperature and total wintertime electricity consumption in Finland. This influence is only seen when the prevailing equatorial stratospheric winds, so called QBO winds, are easterly. The results demonstrate a previously unrecognized societal influence of space weather, and imply that long-term energy consumption forecasts could potentially be improved by considering long-term space weather predictions.